23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
28 When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. 30 Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there. 33 The Jews in the crowd pushed Alexander to the front, and they shouted instructions to him. He motioned for silence in order to make a defense before the people. 34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians, doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven? 36 Therefore, since these facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess. 38 If, then, Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a grievance against anybody, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. They can press charges. 39 If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly. 40 As it is, we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what happened today. In that case we would not be able to account for this commotion, since there is no reason for it.” 41 After he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
Dig Deeper
Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the city of Las Vegas in the United States knows that the nickname of that town is “sin city.” It has a wild reputation for casinos, strip clubs, and the like in the world of entertainment, and just about anything you want to do when it comes to sinful behavior can be done in Vegas. There are, at the same time, churches that exist in Las Vegas. Yet, as far as I know these two worlds don’t come into conflict all that often. I’m sure the churches there occasionally denounce the sorts of behavior that go on in certain places in Vegas, but for the most part it seems as if those two worlds are quite willing to go about their business and leave the other one be.
But what do you think would happen if some new church or preacher went into Vegas and began to preach the gospel in all of its confrontational fullness. In our world today we seem quite happy to separate spheres and keep Christianity safely in the religious sphere, almost seemingly quarantined from other parts of the “real world”. But Paul’s gospel was confrontational. If Jesus really was the king of the new creation and the life of that new creation was available now in Christ then that meant confronting and taking down the ways of life and mindsets of the old created order. So what if this new group set up shop right on the gambling and prostitution strip in Vegas and began to boldly denounce such ways and call people to a new life where gambling and self-indulgent lifestyles were no longer an option (not in the condemning self-righteous way that so many religious people fall into but in the freeing, life-giving manner of the true gospel)? What if people began to come to this message and give up gambling and other things by the hundreds and then thousands and the casinos began to slowly empty as people entered into the life of the new creation and walked away from the deeds of the darkness?
Do you think that the power brokers in Vegas would wish this church well and just leave them to go about their work while their casinos steadily drained like a bathtub once the stopper has been pulled? The quickest way to get people agitated with you is to hit them in the wallet. In this scenario it would not take long for the casinos to respond and I suspect that the response would be lightning fast and devastatingly hard. They have a lot of power in Las Vegas and it wouldn’t take long for them to attempt to do whatever it took to get that church out of town. If this type of teaching took root, tourism would slow dramatically, the casinos would dry up and the whole city would feel the pinch economically for a time. They would, no doubt, appeal to legal arguments and any other appeals to which they could turn to get rid of this group, and maybe even to some not-so-legal means. I know two things for sure. The first is that the response would be as nasty as it was forceful. The second thing I know is that this is the sort of thing that should and will happen when the true and full gospel of the kingdom of God is preached.
As Paul and his companions continued to boldly preach the gospel in Ephesus they continued to call people to live as though Jesus was the king of their kingdom right now in every area of their lives. In a town that was so heavily invested in magic and pagan idolatry it was just a matter of time before the opposition got nasty. The public display of destroying the equivalent of millions of dollars of spells and paraphernalia that went along with worship of Artemis, the primary goddess of the Ephesians no doubt spurred on the opposition that Luke describes here. The problem, though, wasn’t so much the destruction of those old items but the growing realization of those who profited from such things of what this new growing way of life would mean for future business prospects. What would happen if these people continued to grow in their influence and called people away from buying things like the silver shrines that depicted Artemis or her temple?
Something clearly had to be done and it was Demetrius who stepped up to do it. Demetrius was likely the head of the guild of silversmiths. It was common for trades to form guilds at this time and work together to protect the common interests of one another. The gospel had become a clear threat as it called people to live their lives in a completely new way and Demetrius could see where this was heading so he was determined to nip it in the bud.
The goddess Artemis (Diana in Roman mythology) was at the center of Ephesian worship. Images of her and her temple were extremely popular and the sale of these idols helped to prop up the Ephesian economy. The temple of Artemis is regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and covered acreage four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. Artemis was widely worshipped around the Roman world to such an extent that Ephesus was somewhat of a place of pilgrimage for those around the Empire coming to the temple to partake in worship of the goddess which often included orgies and the like.
Being that Artemis worship was so central to not just Demetrius and the silversmiths but the whole region, it did not take much for them to gather a large crowd in the theater in Ephesus, an impressive structure that still exists today. Let’s be clear about the tumult that the silversmiths had ratcheted up here. The theater in Ephesus held about 25,000 people and Paul wasn’t just threatening the livelihood of one guild. They had managed to make the case to the Ephesian people that if this gospel was not dealt with it would mean economic ruin for them all and would discredit their mighty goddess. The results of this kingdom that Paul was preaching really taking route would mean drastic consequences for a town and region that was completely centered around their goddess and that theater may have been near capacity.
Things quickly became a near riot and the people seized the first two Christians that they could get their hands on, Gaius and Aristarchus. When Paul found out what was going on, his heart was that of an evangelist. How could he pass up the opportunity to declare the gospel to crowds that perhaps numbered in the thousands and even tens of thousands? Paul was zealous but he was not prideful, however, and he let cooler heads prevail as he allowed other disciples and even some very powerful local officials whom Paul had befriended during his time there convince him to stay away. The balance of Paul’s life shows clearly that this had to do with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and not fear of what might happen to him.
This was no organized legal demonstration or protest. It was chaos and such situations can get dangerous quickly. In fact many people there were angry and shouting but didn’t even know exactly what precipitated this situation. Those can often be the most dangerous types of crowds because they can be easily manipulated. The Jews would probably have been quite supportive of this protest against Paul and the other Christians and sent Alexander up to speak on their behalf. Luke doesn’t tell exactly what Alexander’s purpose was as he may not have known, but it seems likely that he would have denounced Paul and added to the fervor. Even though they would not have supported Artemis worship, the Jews would have been thrilled to have Paul run out of town. But the Ephesian crowd had been whipped into a frenzy of the type that you only get when you mix together politics, economics, nationalism, intolerance, and religion and they shouted the Jewish representative down and continued chanting and extolling the greatness of Artemis for two hours.
Many commentators suppose that this incident in Ephesus is not the specific item that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:32 and 2 Corinthians 1:8 where he speaks of facing “wild beasts” and despairing of life in Ephesus. While he may not have been referring to this incident alone, surely the frightening ferocity of the opposition that had been whipped up was a good portion of what Paul referred to. Interestingly, Artemis was widely held up as the protector of wild creatures and beasts so Paul’s reference in 1 Corinthians 15:32 to having to fend off the wild beasts in Ephesus was almost surely a slightly sarcastic reference to followers of Artemis.
Just as things were apparently getting close to spiraling out of control, the city clerk of Ephesus, a man with considerable authority stepped up and calmed the crowd. With the skill of a true politician he was able to appeal to their logical side, an exceedingly difficult task under the circumstances. Paul’s position was that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the one true God was becoming king of the world and people could leave their allegiance to the power structures of the world and enter into God’s family and kingdom. This meant that all other gods were nothing more than lifeless idols made by human hands. But this clerk appealed to the belief that the first image of Artemis had fallen to earth (likely a meteorite) and was sent by the gods. His point was that they all knew the “truth” about Artemis and her image and had nothing to fear from these Christians. He was in no way sympathetic towards the Christians but was protecting the crowd from getting out of hand and risking losing democratic freedoms like the right to assemble to the Romans who would quickly shut things down if they felt that things were getting out of control. He urged them to remember that the grievances that the silversmiths had could be and should be taken up in a court of law. He then turned the tables and reminded them that if they kept this behavior up, they would be the ones that would find themselves in trouble with Rome and not the Christians. Although this ended the immediate riot, it doesn’t mean that the persecution and opposition in Ephesus ended by any means.
The question that we must ask ourselves is whether or not the gospel we preach is as appropriately confrontational to the things that stand opposed to the kingdom of God. Are we truly proclaiming a kingdom that by its very nature and truth shines a spotlight on the darkness of the world and causes them to block the light from their eyes? If not, what kingdom are we proclaiming?
Devotional Thought
Throughout Acts the confrontational aspect of the gospel came not so much from Christians denouncing sinful behavior but from them declaring the freedom from those things that comes when God is your king. How can you declare this message in your little corner of the world today and maybe stir up a little healthy confrontation?
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Acts 19:8-22
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.[c] 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided[d] to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Dig Deeper
There was an old professional wrestler who became somewhat famous due, in part, to a line of his that he repeated often. He would regularly remind his opponents that in to “be the man” they had to “beat the man.” His point, of course, was that you only take the place of preeminence by knocking off the one who currently holds that position. What is true of athletics is, I suppose, also true of our hearts. Whatever holds the position of highest importance in our hearts can be considered our god. It is certainly the thing to which we are most beholden. For the Greeks in Ephesus, the thing that had most captured their heart, imagination, and allegiance was magic. They believed in magic and its power so much that in the ancient world and spell or formula was often referred to as an “Ephesian writing.” The city itself had a reputation as a center of learning and the practice of magical arts, and they were deeply committed in their devotion to these magical powers.
To understand all of that is virtually necessary to understand what Luke wants us to see in this section. Without understanding the hold that their belief in magic and dark powers had on the Ephesians, this passage will seem strange, superstitious, and almost at odds with what we believe to know about the gospel and how it should be spread. This encounter at Ephesus was all about power and challenging what people held most dear in their hearts.
It might help to think of ancient Egypt for just a moment. During the time of Moses, Egypt was beholden to their belief in their gods and so, apparently, were the Israelites who had lived in that land for over 400 years. When Moses came to free the children of Abraham and serve notice on the Egyptians, there was a mighty power struggle that had to be won but it was not between Moses and Pharaoh. It was between Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the gods of Egypt. That is why each plague that Yahweh wrought on Egypt was a direct attack on the major gods of their religious beliefs. (For instance the water into blood was an assault on Hapi the god of the Nile; the boils were a direct affront to Imhotep, the physician god, and Thoth, the god of magic and healing; the hail was a conquering of Nut the sky goddess; the locusts were directed at Seth the god of crops; the dark was a clear defeat of Re, the mighty sun god and so on). God was clearly defeating these gods so that he could replace their positions of preeminence within the hearts of his people.
This is precisely what was going on in Ephesus. These seemingly strange accounts of miracles that almost seem to delve into the magical realm are not mere accounts of legend and myth that has seeped into Luke’s account. Nor are they a demonstration that the gospel was (and perhaps still should be, some might claim) accompanied by magic-type miracles. This was clearly a special situation. It was a defeat of the thing that the Ephesians held most dear so that they could see the truth and true power of the gospel. The power wasn’t in magic or spells or even Paul. The true power was the power of God. To use that famous wrestlers phrase, God was about to step up and beat the man at his own game.
Paul began his ministry in Ephesus, which lasted an uncharacteristically long period for him of two to three years, with a three month stint of preaching and teaching in the synagogue. He apparently had some initial success before being beset with the same sort of opposition from Jewish leadership that he had faced many times before. Rather than incurring further opposition, Paul moved his teaching sessions to a hall where either Tyrranus was the primary lecturer or was owned by Tyrannus. This must have been a fairly successful endeavor because Paul continued there as his main evangelistic outlet for over two years. It seems that during this time some of Paul’s co-workers such as Epaphras (Col. 1:7) were busy evangelizing the rest of the province of Asia, including planting churches in Colosse; Laodicea; Hieropolis, and quite possibly all seven of the churches mentioned by John in his Revelation.
While teaching was the heart and soul of Paul’s ministry, as the preaching of the word of God always will be, God used Paul in other ways as well. While working in the morning before he went off to the lecture hall for the afternoon, people were taking Paul’s work aprons and handkerchiefs to the sick who were being healed and freed from demonic possession. Luke is clear to point out that this was not magic. It was not the result of a spell. It was not even Paul who was capable of such amazing feats. It was the power of the one true God demonstrating the fraud and impotency of demonic magic when compared to the true power of God.
Luke also made clear that this was not a repeatable event to be mimicked for personal use or gain as verses 13-16 make clear. They serve as a stern warning for hucksters who would try to claim the ability to harness non-normative and non-repeating events like those that took place in Ephesus for their own gain or “ministry” claims (although I recently saw a so-called preacher hawking his own green healing cloths on television while using verses 11-12 as a justification for this).
The miracles that were done through Paul were God’s way of showing the Ephesians true power and divesting them from their belief in magic so that they could hear the true message of the gospel, the truth that the power of God’s new creation was breaking into the present realm and brining its holistic restoration to bear. The miracles were a small demonstration of the new creation, nothing more and nothing less. But Luke knew that many would try to co-opt that power and use it as nothing more than another talisman or spell next to all of their other options. All things Jewish were particularly attractive as Jewish magic was considered to be highly effective. Thus, it should be of little surprise that seven men were disciples of Sceva. It is quite possible that Sceva was a magician (possibly even Jewish himself) who called himself a chief priest to gain the reputation of the Jewish connection and impress others (not unlike magicians today who call themselves the “great” or “amazing” something or the other).
But these seven men were attempting to fool with the real deal and not just dabble in magic. They sought to use the name of Jesus to cast out demons. They had obviously been deeply impressed with the works that had been done by Paul through the power of God and thought that they too could invoke the name of Jesus. But they were not part of God’s family and were seeking to use God’s power for their own gain. And like someone using a weapon that they don’t know how to handle only to have it blow up in their face, they had stepped into the realm of the big boys and were about to face the real power. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the real power was the demon that declared that he knew and presumably respected Paul and Jesus and then proceeded to beat them to a pulp, leaving them scrambling, naked, and bleeding. The real power lay in the name of Jesus, something that could not be appropriated for their own use. The family of God wasn’t built on magic but on the power of God and that power had been shown as the real thing while their beloved magic was nothing more than a pretender. And a severe warning had been laid down. One had better think twice before trying to manipulate the power of God for their own gain.
These displays of the power of the kingdom of God were enough to convince many that they needed to divest in their idolatry and adherence to magic and seek the kingdom of God. But as always, to do so involved repentance from the gods that bound them. In this case, they brought their magic scrolls of spells and enchantments which would have taken lifetimes to accrue and pass down. The total value amounted to a day’s wage for 50,000 workers, an amount that has been estimated in today’s terms to be as high as several million dollars. And they weren’t just denouncing or selling these books and scrolls, they were destroying them and they were revealing the spells publicly which, it was believed, robbed the spell of its power. The power of God had made itself manifest and the counterfeit power of magic had lost in an expensive way which is perhaps the quickest way to gain opposition as the following passage will make clear. The Ephesians who believed, however, had learned rightly to trust in the power of God rather than magic. Just as God had defeated the Egyptian gods head to head and run roughshod over the prophets of Ba’al on Mt. Carmel, God had taken on the power of magic and defeated by exposing it’s lack of power and demonstrating that the true power was in God alone.
Although the point for many had been made, they would continue to need to be taught on the topic of spiritual power and the true power of the family of God. This is possibly reason that Paul’s most thorough explanation of spiritual powers and the spiritual battle that Christians face come in Paul’s letter called Ephesians (which he either wrote to the Ephesians or while imprisoned in Ephesus). They would continue to have to be educated on the subject, but the initial battle had been won in the hearts of many. The true power of God had been shown.
Devotional Thought
Take at look at those around you in your life. What are their gods that they believe and trust in? How can you allow the Spirit to work through you to demonstrate to them the emptiness and lack of true power in those things? How can you show them that true power to change lives and bring eternal peace comes from God alone.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.[c] 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided[d] to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Dig Deeper
There was an old professional wrestler who became somewhat famous due, in part, to a line of his that he repeated often. He would regularly remind his opponents that in to “be the man” they had to “beat the man.” His point, of course, was that you only take the place of preeminence by knocking off the one who currently holds that position. What is true of athletics is, I suppose, also true of our hearts. Whatever holds the position of highest importance in our hearts can be considered our god. It is certainly the thing to which we are most beholden. For the Greeks in Ephesus, the thing that had most captured their heart, imagination, and allegiance was magic. They believed in magic and its power so much that in the ancient world and spell or formula was often referred to as an “Ephesian writing.” The city itself had a reputation as a center of learning and the practice of magical arts, and they were deeply committed in their devotion to these magical powers.
To understand all of that is virtually necessary to understand what Luke wants us to see in this section. Without understanding the hold that their belief in magic and dark powers had on the Ephesians, this passage will seem strange, superstitious, and almost at odds with what we believe to know about the gospel and how it should be spread. This encounter at Ephesus was all about power and challenging what people held most dear in their hearts.
It might help to think of ancient Egypt for just a moment. During the time of Moses, Egypt was beholden to their belief in their gods and so, apparently, were the Israelites who had lived in that land for over 400 years. When Moses came to free the children of Abraham and serve notice on the Egyptians, there was a mighty power struggle that had to be won but it was not between Moses and Pharaoh. It was between Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the gods of Egypt. That is why each plague that Yahweh wrought on Egypt was a direct attack on the major gods of their religious beliefs. (For instance the water into blood was an assault on Hapi the god of the Nile; the boils were a direct affront to Imhotep, the physician god, and Thoth, the god of magic and healing; the hail was a conquering of Nut the sky goddess; the locusts were directed at Seth the god of crops; the dark was a clear defeat of Re, the mighty sun god and so on). God was clearly defeating these gods so that he could replace their positions of preeminence within the hearts of his people.
This is precisely what was going on in Ephesus. These seemingly strange accounts of miracles that almost seem to delve into the magical realm are not mere accounts of legend and myth that has seeped into Luke’s account. Nor are they a demonstration that the gospel was (and perhaps still should be, some might claim) accompanied by magic-type miracles. This was clearly a special situation. It was a defeat of the thing that the Ephesians held most dear so that they could see the truth and true power of the gospel. The power wasn’t in magic or spells or even Paul. The true power was the power of God. To use that famous wrestlers phrase, God was about to step up and beat the man at his own game.
Paul began his ministry in Ephesus, which lasted an uncharacteristically long period for him of two to three years, with a three month stint of preaching and teaching in the synagogue. He apparently had some initial success before being beset with the same sort of opposition from Jewish leadership that he had faced many times before. Rather than incurring further opposition, Paul moved his teaching sessions to a hall where either Tyrranus was the primary lecturer or was owned by Tyrannus. This must have been a fairly successful endeavor because Paul continued there as his main evangelistic outlet for over two years. It seems that during this time some of Paul’s co-workers such as Epaphras (Col. 1:7) were busy evangelizing the rest of the province of Asia, including planting churches in Colosse; Laodicea; Hieropolis, and quite possibly all seven of the churches mentioned by John in his Revelation.
While teaching was the heart and soul of Paul’s ministry, as the preaching of the word of God always will be, God used Paul in other ways as well. While working in the morning before he went off to the lecture hall for the afternoon, people were taking Paul’s work aprons and handkerchiefs to the sick who were being healed and freed from demonic possession. Luke is clear to point out that this was not magic. It was not the result of a spell. It was not even Paul who was capable of such amazing feats. It was the power of the one true God demonstrating the fraud and impotency of demonic magic when compared to the true power of God.
Luke also made clear that this was not a repeatable event to be mimicked for personal use or gain as verses 13-16 make clear. They serve as a stern warning for hucksters who would try to claim the ability to harness non-normative and non-repeating events like those that took place in Ephesus for their own gain or “ministry” claims (although I recently saw a so-called preacher hawking his own green healing cloths on television while using verses 11-12 as a justification for this).
The miracles that were done through Paul were God’s way of showing the Ephesians true power and divesting them from their belief in magic so that they could hear the true message of the gospel, the truth that the power of God’s new creation was breaking into the present realm and brining its holistic restoration to bear. The miracles were a small demonstration of the new creation, nothing more and nothing less. But Luke knew that many would try to co-opt that power and use it as nothing more than another talisman or spell next to all of their other options. All things Jewish were particularly attractive as Jewish magic was considered to be highly effective. Thus, it should be of little surprise that seven men were disciples of Sceva. It is quite possible that Sceva was a magician (possibly even Jewish himself) who called himself a chief priest to gain the reputation of the Jewish connection and impress others (not unlike magicians today who call themselves the “great” or “amazing” something or the other).
But these seven men were attempting to fool with the real deal and not just dabble in magic. They sought to use the name of Jesus to cast out demons. They had obviously been deeply impressed with the works that had been done by Paul through the power of God and thought that they too could invoke the name of Jesus. But they were not part of God’s family and were seeking to use God’s power for their own gain. And like someone using a weapon that they don’t know how to handle only to have it blow up in their face, they had stepped into the realm of the big boys and were about to face the real power. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the real power was the demon that declared that he knew and presumably respected Paul and Jesus and then proceeded to beat them to a pulp, leaving them scrambling, naked, and bleeding. The real power lay in the name of Jesus, something that could not be appropriated for their own use. The family of God wasn’t built on magic but on the power of God and that power had been shown as the real thing while their beloved magic was nothing more than a pretender. And a severe warning had been laid down. One had better think twice before trying to manipulate the power of God for their own gain.
These displays of the power of the kingdom of God were enough to convince many that they needed to divest in their idolatry and adherence to magic and seek the kingdom of God. But as always, to do so involved repentance from the gods that bound them. In this case, they brought their magic scrolls of spells and enchantments which would have taken lifetimes to accrue and pass down. The total value amounted to a day’s wage for 50,000 workers, an amount that has been estimated in today’s terms to be as high as several million dollars. And they weren’t just denouncing or selling these books and scrolls, they were destroying them and they were revealing the spells publicly which, it was believed, robbed the spell of its power. The power of God had made itself manifest and the counterfeit power of magic had lost in an expensive way which is perhaps the quickest way to gain opposition as the following passage will make clear. The Ephesians who believed, however, had learned rightly to trust in the power of God rather than magic. Just as God had defeated the Egyptian gods head to head and run roughshod over the prophets of Ba’al on Mt. Carmel, God had taken on the power of magic and defeated by exposing it’s lack of power and demonstrating that the true power was in God alone.
Although the point for many had been made, they would continue to need to be taught on the topic of spiritual power and the true power of the family of God. This is possibly reason that Paul’s most thorough explanation of spiritual powers and the spiritual battle that Christians face come in Paul’s letter called Ephesians (which he either wrote to the Ephesians or while imprisoned in Ephesus). They would continue to have to be educated on the subject, but the initial battle had been won in the hearts of many. The true power of God had been shown.
Devotional Thought
Take at look at those around you in your life. What are their gods that they believe and trust in? How can you allow the Spirit to work through you to demonstrate to them the emptiness and lack of true power in those things? How can you show them that true power to change lives and bring eternal peace comes from God alone.
Monday, January 09, 2012
Acts 18:24-19:7
24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor[a] and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
Paul in Ephesus
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when[a] you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues[b] and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Dig Deeper
A few years ago, I could not stand the idea of cell phones. I vowed that I would never own one but then my wife had to go into the hospital for a period of several months with a difficult pregnancy and I needed to be as available as possible so I began to carry one. Slowly but surely I saw the benefits of having a cell phone and now I cannot imagine going without one. Until recently, however, I felt the same about smart phones. I just didn’t see the point of having a phone that can do a hundred different things above and beyond simply being a phone. That is, until my wife got one for me. Suddenly I can keep track of my schedule and the schedule on my wife’s phone, I can video conference with people around the world regardless of where I’m at, I can check my email anywhere at anytime, I can read and create documents anywhere, and a whole host of other indispensable things. I’ve grown to truly appreciate this phone and be able to do many things on it that I never would have imagined were possible from a mere phone. I’ve even spent some time showing interested people the virtues of this phone and all of the things that it can do. Just when I thought that I had it all figured out, though, I realized recently that there was a function on my phone that I was trying to make work but I just could not figure it out. That’s when my eight year-old son sat down with me and proceeded to explain to me his mild frustration with me over the fact that I simply did not have a full working knowledge of my own phone. I don’t understand if the kids these days are born with technology genes that us older folks simply don’t have but he was able to show me several vital functions and features of my phone that I didn’t have a clue were even available (a surprising fact considering he doesn’t own a phone). I appreciated what I knew of it but he opened a whole new world by giving me a more adequate explanation of my phone.
As Luke continues to describe the spread of the gospel as it made its way from Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth” he takes us on a brief stop-off with two stories that show slightly different aspects of the same issue. In the early decades of Christianity there had been many elements of Jewish Messianic hope including the teachings of a coming kingdom of God that John the Baptist and his disciples were espousing, and even the teachings of Jesus himself that had made their way around the known world at the time. Many of these strands of teaching apart from that of Jesus and his disciples were but parts of the whole and there were apparently many different combinations and partial aspects of the truth, or even somewhat convoluted aspects of the gospel. Most of the work of the church was to preach the gospel to the Jews who were waiting for God’s Messiah and to the Gentiles who had little to knowledge or expectation of anything of the kind. But they also had to confront those who were still following John’s teachings or had heard but part of the message and truth of Jesus. Luke was no doubt taking special concern to include these two accounts to make clear that it was no longer appropriate to continue to follow John. The one that he had pointed to had come and everything that John had preached would come about had been fulfilled in the life, death, resurrection, and baptism into Jesus Christ. God’s family could finally be entered into fully and the seal of God’s Holy Spirit was available to all who entered into Christ.
Luke returns us to Ephesus where a man named Apollos arrived at a time when Paul was not in the city but Aquila and Priscilla were. Apollos was quite possibly an itinerant worker who engaged in teaching wherever he went, something that was not uncommon in these parts of the world at this time but we cannot be certain of that. He was a native of Alexandria which was a center of culture and learning in the ancient world but was also known to be an early center of various garbled versions of teaching about the Messiah so, although Luke doesn’t explicitly tell us, it is quite possible that Apollos had been instructed in portions of the life of Jesus. In addition to that, Apollos was Jewish and presumably grew up in the large Jewish community in Alexandria so his knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures would have been high. We cannot piece together all of the details concerning Apollos but we do know that he had been instructed at least partially concerning Jesus and that he was quite zealous or had “great fervor.” (A phrase which literally translated is “great fervor in spirit,” a phrase which some have pressed to argue that Apollos was full of the Spirit, but an understanding that is unlikely given the context.) Because of his passion for spiritual truth, Apollos taught accurately about Jesus as far as what he knew. It is quite reasonable at this point to conclude that Apollos had been taught by someone who had possibly even heard Jesus or knew of him during his lifetime but who had not yet known of the events surrounding his death and resurrection as well as Pentecost.
Luke goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Apollos was a sincere and honest man who taught about Jesus accurately, yet he was not fully informed on one vital point. He needed someone to sit down with him and explain the fullness of the gospel message adequately. This is exactly what Aquila and Priscilla would do as they would open a whole new world of the gospel of Jesus Christ to this already rather learned man. Their respect for Apollos is apparent as they did not confront this truth seeker in public. They privately invited him into their home to hear the full story. As they did so, Apollos’ sincerity and humility shined through as he listened and accepted the truth.
But what part of the gospel was Apollos missing? He knew of only the baptism of John which meant that he knew of only the symbolic and preparatory baptism of John the Baptist. Apollos was unaware that the Spirit had been poured out and God’s family made available to all who would not just know of Jesus but those that would believe in his life, repent of living for their own will, and submit to his Lordship, by being baptized into his life (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-4; Titus 3:4-8).
Luke does not explicitly state that Apollos was then baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sin and to receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), but the fact that Luke rolls the conversion of Apollos directly into the account at the beginning of chapter 19 make if fairly clear that this is exactly what he was implying. There were, in other words, fervent and sincere people who had elements of the gospel but they too needed to be taught adequately and immersed into the life of Christ.
Once Apollos had been brought fully into God’s family, he wanted to continue his activities of traveling and teaching about Christ. The brothers and sisters in Ephesus not only encouraged him but sent a letter of recommendation so that he would be welcomed and trusted as a true believer by the community there. His time in Corinth was so successful that it could almost be argued he was “too successful.” Luke confirms that Apollos was “a great help to those who by grace had believed.” His teaching skill was no doubt a great addition to the Corinthian community but they were so young and immature that Paul would have to spend a fair amount of time in the opening chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians helping those who were so enamored with Apollos’ teaching skill and content that they began to create schisms. Yet, Paul, and Luke for that matter, never had anything but godly praise for this humble and powerful teacher of the gospel. In fact, Apollos was so powerful in arguing the truth of the gospel from the Scriptures with his Jewish brethren that some have put forth the theory that he was the author of the anonymously written Hebrews.
Luke intentionally connects these two accounts concerning the priority of baptism into the life of Christ as he mentions that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul arrived for another visit to Ephesus. This time the Spirit opened the door in Ephesus in a unique way. While there, Paul ran into a group of about a dozen men whom Luke calls disciples. Much debate has gone into whether Luke intended to convey that these men were disciples of John or of Jesus. If they were strictly disciples of John, then it seems that Luke would have just said that. Yet, it is unlikely that Luke would mean that they were actual disciples as the rest of his account goes to show that they were not. In his work “Acts,” scholar I. Howard Marshall astutely points out that “Paul met some men who appeared to him to be disciples, but because he had some doubts about their Christian status he proceeded to examine their claims more carefully. Luke is not saying that the men were disciples but is describing how they appeared to Paul.” This is not unusual as Luke often spoke of the appearance of someone’s spiritual condition without specifically commenting on it before showing the truth of it such as noting that Simon “believed” (Acts 8.13, and; reporting the Judaizers as “believers” (Acts 15:5).
Noticing that something didn’t seem quite right, Paul inquired as to these men’s reception of the Holy Spirit. His assumption was that they, like all believers since Pentecost, would have been baptized through faith into Christ and received the gift of the indwelling Spirit (Acts 2:38). Yet Paul saw no evidence of that or of the subsequent outpouring of the Spirit as manifested in special gifts of the Spirit. Their answer probably didn’t surprise him at all. They, like Apollos, had not even heard of that the Spirit was now available on a personal basis.
Paul’s next assumption is instructive. If they had not received the Spirit and were not members of Christ then the problem must have had to do with baptism for in Paul’s mind, all who were buried into his death and resurrection through baptism in genuine faith were believers and would have received the indwelling of the Spirit. Just as Apollos had not known of the necessity of being baptized into Christ, this group of men had to be taught more adequately as well and were then immediately baptized into Christ, receiving the forgiveness of their sin and the gift of the counselor, the Holy Spirit.
Twice before the Spirit had prevented Paul from laying the foundation of a church in Ephesus and completing the work there that he desired to do but apparently now, the Spirit’s timing was right. It seemingly was through these twelve men that the foundation for a church in Ephesus would be laid. These men were not just baptized into Christ but Paul used his apostolic gift to pass on to them special gifts of the Spirit that would enable them to demonstrate the truth of their gospel claims to others in Ephesus. Once Paul had laid his hands on them, the Spirit came upon them (a separate function from the indwelling of the Spirit that all believers are promised at baptism into Christ per Acts 2:38) and empowered them to speak in tongues and prophesy.
These two accounts from Ephesus are encouraging reminders that the truth of the gospel is powerful. Even those who are very learned and sincere religiously can be brought into the life of Christ if they are humbly and patiently, albeit directly, taught more adequately about the need to fully enter into the life of Christ and become part of his family.
Devotional Thought
We have two separate examples here of disciples who were willing to speak boldly to sincere religious people rather than be sentimental. They put their love for God, the truth, and others ahead of the potential discomfort of speaking the gospel to those who were already convinced that they were doing the right thing. What is your response to such situations? Are you ready, willing, and able to step out in faith and to show biblical truth to those who need more adequate teaching and to do so with the same humility and respect that these first disciples had?
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
Paul in Ephesus
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when[a] you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues[b] and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Dig Deeper
A few years ago, I could not stand the idea of cell phones. I vowed that I would never own one but then my wife had to go into the hospital for a period of several months with a difficult pregnancy and I needed to be as available as possible so I began to carry one. Slowly but surely I saw the benefits of having a cell phone and now I cannot imagine going without one. Until recently, however, I felt the same about smart phones. I just didn’t see the point of having a phone that can do a hundred different things above and beyond simply being a phone. That is, until my wife got one for me. Suddenly I can keep track of my schedule and the schedule on my wife’s phone, I can video conference with people around the world regardless of where I’m at, I can check my email anywhere at anytime, I can read and create documents anywhere, and a whole host of other indispensable things. I’ve grown to truly appreciate this phone and be able to do many things on it that I never would have imagined were possible from a mere phone. I’ve even spent some time showing interested people the virtues of this phone and all of the things that it can do. Just when I thought that I had it all figured out, though, I realized recently that there was a function on my phone that I was trying to make work but I just could not figure it out. That’s when my eight year-old son sat down with me and proceeded to explain to me his mild frustration with me over the fact that I simply did not have a full working knowledge of my own phone. I don’t understand if the kids these days are born with technology genes that us older folks simply don’t have but he was able to show me several vital functions and features of my phone that I didn’t have a clue were even available (a surprising fact considering he doesn’t own a phone). I appreciated what I knew of it but he opened a whole new world by giving me a more adequate explanation of my phone.
As Luke continues to describe the spread of the gospel as it made its way from Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth” he takes us on a brief stop-off with two stories that show slightly different aspects of the same issue. In the early decades of Christianity there had been many elements of Jewish Messianic hope including the teachings of a coming kingdom of God that John the Baptist and his disciples were espousing, and even the teachings of Jesus himself that had made their way around the known world at the time. Many of these strands of teaching apart from that of Jesus and his disciples were but parts of the whole and there were apparently many different combinations and partial aspects of the truth, or even somewhat convoluted aspects of the gospel. Most of the work of the church was to preach the gospel to the Jews who were waiting for God’s Messiah and to the Gentiles who had little to knowledge or expectation of anything of the kind. But they also had to confront those who were still following John’s teachings or had heard but part of the message and truth of Jesus. Luke was no doubt taking special concern to include these two accounts to make clear that it was no longer appropriate to continue to follow John. The one that he had pointed to had come and everything that John had preached would come about had been fulfilled in the life, death, resurrection, and baptism into Jesus Christ. God’s family could finally be entered into fully and the seal of God’s Holy Spirit was available to all who entered into Christ.
Luke returns us to Ephesus where a man named Apollos arrived at a time when Paul was not in the city but Aquila and Priscilla were. Apollos was quite possibly an itinerant worker who engaged in teaching wherever he went, something that was not uncommon in these parts of the world at this time but we cannot be certain of that. He was a native of Alexandria which was a center of culture and learning in the ancient world but was also known to be an early center of various garbled versions of teaching about the Messiah so, although Luke doesn’t explicitly tell us, it is quite possible that Apollos had been instructed in portions of the life of Jesus. In addition to that, Apollos was Jewish and presumably grew up in the large Jewish community in Alexandria so his knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures would have been high. We cannot piece together all of the details concerning Apollos but we do know that he had been instructed at least partially concerning Jesus and that he was quite zealous or had “great fervor.” (A phrase which literally translated is “great fervor in spirit,” a phrase which some have pressed to argue that Apollos was full of the Spirit, but an understanding that is unlikely given the context.) Because of his passion for spiritual truth, Apollos taught accurately about Jesus as far as what he knew. It is quite reasonable at this point to conclude that Apollos had been taught by someone who had possibly even heard Jesus or knew of him during his lifetime but who had not yet known of the events surrounding his death and resurrection as well as Pentecost.
Luke goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Apollos was a sincere and honest man who taught about Jesus accurately, yet he was not fully informed on one vital point. He needed someone to sit down with him and explain the fullness of the gospel message adequately. This is exactly what Aquila and Priscilla would do as they would open a whole new world of the gospel of Jesus Christ to this already rather learned man. Their respect for Apollos is apparent as they did not confront this truth seeker in public. They privately invited him into their home to hear the full story. As they did so, Apollos’ sincerity and humility shined through as he listened and accepted the truth.
But what part of the gospel was Apollos missing? He knew of only the baptism of John which meant that he knew of only the symbolic and preparatory baptism of John the Baptist. Apollos was unaware that the Spirit had been poured out and God’s family made available to all who would not just know of Jesus but those that would believe in his life, repent of living for their own will, and submit to his Lordship, by being baptized into his life (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-4; Titus 3:4-8).
Luke does not explicitly state that Apollos was then baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sin and to receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), but the fact that Luke rolls the conversion of Apollos directly into the account at the beginning of chapter 19 make if fairly clear that this is exactly what he was implying. There were, in other words, fervent and sincere people who had elements of the gospel but they too needed to be taught adequately and immersed into the life of Christ.
Once Apollos had been brought fully into God’s family, he wanted to continue his activities of traveling and teaching about Christ. The brothers and sisters in Ephesus not only encouraged him but sent a letter of recommendation so that he would be welcomed and trusted as a true believer by the community there. His time in Corinth was so successful that it could almost be argued he was “too successful.” Luke confirms that Apollos was “a great help to those who by grace had believed.” His teaching skill was no doubt a great addition to the Corinthian community but they were so young and immature that Paul would have to spend a fair amount of time in the opening chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians helping those who were so enamored with Apollos’ teaching skill and content that they began to create schisms. Yet, Paul, and Luke for that matter, never had anything but godly praise for this humble and powerful teacher of the gospel. In fact, Apollos was so powerful in arguing the truth of the gospel from the Scriptures with his Jewish brethren that some have put forth the theory that he was the author of the anonymously written Hebrews.
Luke intentionally connects these two accounts concerning the priority of baptism into the life of Christ as he mentions that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul arrived for another visit to Ephesus. This time the Spirit opened the door in Ephesus in a unique way. While there, Paul ran into a group of about a dozen men whom Luke calls disciples. Much debate has gone into whether Luke intended to convey that these men were disciples of John or of Jesus. If they were strictly disciples of John, then it seems that Luke would have just said that. Yet, it is unlikely that Luke would mean that they were actual disciples as the rest of his account goes to show that they were not. In his work “Acts,” scholar I. Howard Marshall astutely points out that “Paul met some men who appeared to him to be disciples, but because he had some doubts about their Christian status he proceeded to examine their claims more carefully. Luke is not saying that the men were disciples but is describing how they appeared to Paul.” This is not unusual as Luke often spoke of the appearance of someone’s spiritual condition without specifically commenting on it before showing the truth of it such as noting that Simon “believed” (Acts 8.13, and; reporting the Judaizers as “believers” (Acts 15:5).
Noticing that something didn’t seem quite right, Paul inquired as to these men’s reception of the Holy Spirit. His assumption was that they, like all believers since Pentecost, would have been baptized through faith into Christ and received the gift of the indwelling Spirit (Acts 2:38). Yet Paul saw no evidence of that or of the subsequent outpouring of the Spirit as manifested in special gifts of the Spirit. Their answer probably didn’t surprise him at all. They, like Apollos, had not even heard of that the Spirit was now available on a personal basis.
Paul’s next assumption is instructive. If they had not received the Spirit and were not members of Christ then the problem must have had to do with baptism for in Paul’s mind, all who were buried into his death and resurrection through baptism in genuine faith were believers and would have received the indwelling of the Spirit. Just as Apollos had not known of the necessity of being baptized into Christ, this group of men had to be taught more adequately as well and were then immediately baptized into Christ, receiving the forgiveness of their sin and the gift of the counselor, the Holy Spirit.
Twice before the Spirit had prevented Paul from laying the foundation of a church in Ephesus and completing the work there that he desired to do but apparently now, the Spirit’s timing was right. It seemingly was through these twelve men that the foundation for a church in Ephesus would be laid. These men were not just baptized into Christ but Paul used his apostolic gift to pass on to them special gifts of the Spirit that would enable them to demonstrate the truth of their gospel claims to others in Ephesus. Once Paul had laid his hands on them, the Spirit came upon them (a separate function from the indwelling of the Spirit that all believers are promised at baptism into Christ per Acts 2:38) and empowered them to speak in tongues and prophesy.
These two accounts from Ephesus are encouraging reminders that the truth of the gospel is powerful. Even those who are very learned and sincere religiously can be brought into the life of Christ if they are humbly and patiently, albeit directly, taught more adequately about the need to fully enter into the life of Christ and become part of his family.
Devotional Thought
We have two separate examples here of disciples who were willing to speak boldly to sincere religious people rather than be sentimental. They put their love for God, the truth, and others ahead of the potential discomfort of speaking the gospel to those who were already convinced that they were doing the right thing. What is your response to such situations? Are you ready, willing, and able to step out in faith and to show biblical truth to those who need more adequate teaching and to do so with the same humility and respect that these first disciples had?
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Acts 18:12-23
12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the judge's bench. 13 "This man," they said, "persuades people to worship God contrary to the law!"
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of a crime or of moral evil, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. 15 But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don't want to be a judge of such things." 16 So he drove them from the judge's bench. 17 Then they all [f] seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judge's bench. But none of these things concerned Gallio.
The Return Trip to Antioch
18 So Paul, having stayed on for many days, said good-bye to the brothers and sailed away to Syria. Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He shaved his head at Cenchreae, because he had taken a vow. 19 When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and engaged in discussion with [g] the Jews. 20 And though they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, 21 but said good-bye and stated, [h] "I'll come back to you again, if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, [i] and went down to Antioch. 23 He set out, traveling through one place after another in the Galatian territory and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Dig Deeper
Last year an American football player made a vow at the beginning of the season that he was not going to shave his face until his team made it to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. The attention that he received for this little stunt grew by the week both as a result of his team being very good and having a legitimate chance to make the Super Bowl and the fact that his beard was growing quite burly over the course of a long season. By the time the playoffs came around, his beard was in the realm of a fine Grizzly Adams-like beard. He continued to vow that he would not shave his beard off until he made it to the Super Bowl, which would have been interesting if his team had not made it, but they did win each round of the playoffs and made their way to the Super Bowl. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, his beard got a great deal of attention. He had vowed to grow it until he played in a Super Bowl and he had made it. Eventually his team lost in the Super Bowl but shortly after the game, with his vow fulfilled, he shaved his beard and came out publicly a few days later clean-shaven and ready to take on the challenge of the next season.
As Paul continued on with his journey of spreading the gospel throughout the world, he faced many challenges of different kinds. As he was beginning the journey back home to Antioch, Luke briefly mentions that Paul shaved his head because of a vow but doesn’t give us any more information than that. Commentators have long puzzled over what type of vow Paul was taking and what it meant. We can state with absolute certainty that he had not taken a vow to play in the Super Bowl. Some have suggested that he took a strict Nazarite vow which often involved not cutting one’s hair but strict vows of that nature were not taken outside of the land of Israel and always ended in Jerusalem so it is unlikely that it was a vow of that type. What is more likely is that Paul engaged in a typical but not formal Jewish custom of making vows that reminded them of a special circumstance or time period that they were offering to God. It is quite reasonable that Paul had chosen to undertake such a vow when God guided him to stay in Corinth to build up the ministry there for a time much longer than he had originally planned. It is quite possible, if this speculation is correct, that Paul was growing his hair as a sign of trust in God’s provision and protection through a long time in Corinth. Now as he left the region, he would shave his head to signify that God had indeed come through and that specific time was over.
But before he left the region of Achaia, Paul would be dragged before the authorities for one more important encounter, this time with the proconsul, Gallio. The charge against Paul was a familiar one that was lodged against the apostles and the early church most often. They were persuading people to worship God contrary to the Law of Moses. The church was constantly facing dual charges on either end of the spectrum. The Jews charged that the Christian belief followed in the blasphemous footsteps of their so-called Messiah, Jesus. They truly believed, as Paul once had, that the Christians were encouraging Jews to abandon their faith, disregard the Law, disrespect Moses, and therefore they stood as no better than the pagans.
On the other hand, the Romans were quite wary of the early Christians, especially as it became more and more clear that this was not just an offshoot of Judaism but was something entirely different. It might seem odd that Rome would have a problem with Christianity being that it was an empire that was quite tolerant of other religions as long as they didn’t pose a threat to the Empire itself. So how could a group that was built on the teachings of love and non-violence of their Messiah pose a threat? It was because they were not a typical religion. Rome would have been quite happy to allow just another group that held their private religious beliefs within the confines of their own community. But the Christians, although not political or militaristic, truly believed that Jesus was the true King of the world and this meant that Caesar was not. They were determined to live that way and live by the values of the kingdom to which they belonged in heart and loyalty. Rome may not have completely understood that but they saw the potential threat and were determined to stop it. This meant that the Christians typically found themselves squeezed between the religious zeal of the Jews and the political wariness of the Romans.
But as Paul stepped before Gallio, it was still early in the Christian development and Christianity had not yet fully gained the attention of the non-Jewish world and certainly the Christian community was not fully understood by the Romans. Gallio, like many in the pagan world at this time, still saw the Christian and Jewish conflict as an in-house squabble that they did not want to deal with. Gallio did not want to get involved what what he understood as arguments over things that the Romans didn’t believe, didn’t understand, and didn’t care about.
This might seem like a negative decision for Paul and the disciples but it was actually a great victory for them. It basically gave the Christian community a new freedom, at least in the region of southern and central Greece. Gallio’s decision meant that Christianity was still being viewed as a part of Judaism which meant that they would be afforded the same freedom that was allowed to the Jewish faith. In addition, he was clearly telling the Jewish leadership that he didn’t want to hear about any more complaints that they had with the Christians. For now, Rome would not do their dirty work.
Luke does not make it clear as to why Sosthenes was beaten and by who but he does make clear that Gallio was no saint. His decision was favorable for Paul but was not based in godliness or justice but convenience for him and Rome. Now he turns a blind eye to a crowd grabbing and beating a man. It may have been that the Greeks grabbed Sosthenes and beat him but it is more likely that the Jews beat their own synagogue leader either for losing the case before Gallio and losing the honor of the community or because he had somehow demonstrated Christian sympathies during the trial. Bolstering this last possibility is that Paul mentions someone named Sosthenes in 1 Corinthians 1:1 as his co-author (possibly the same man as the one in this passage, but not necessarily).
As Paul’s journey was coming to an end he left and headed towards Ephesus. God had prompted him to stay in the region of Corinth for longer than he had planned but now it was time to move on. It would make sense that if his vow was a remembrance and thanksgiving vow to God for his provision during his time in that region that as he left the region and headed toward Jerusalem that it was a good time to end the vow and give final thanks to God.
Paul finally arrived in Ephesus, in the province of Asia. He had earlier been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now in Ephesus, things seem to go well and Paul is asked to stay more and continue to preach the gospel, but Paul seemed to discern that the time was still not right for a full-scale ministry in Ephesus, at least it was not the time for Paul. But he did leave Aquila and Priscilla behind to build up the church. Paul was clearly a man who was constantly in touch with the guidance of the Spirit as he revealed God’s will to him and did not feel that he had to do everything himself. He would later urge Timothy to teach the ministry and gospel to faithful men who would be equipped to pass it on to others (2 Timothy 2:2) and that is precisely what he was doing here.
Verse 22 is a bit cryptic but it is likely that when Luke says that Paul “went up and greeted the church,” he is referring to Paul going to visit the church in Jerusalem (although he could simply be referring to the church in Caesarea, but it would be worded oddly if that were the case). What Luke was most likely telling us was that Paul was always accountable in his ministry to the church family at large. He was not a lone-gun but kept in contact with the historic center of the church and gave them occasional updates of his activities. Paul then traveled on to his “home” church in Antioch for a short time.
But even on arriving back at “home,” Paul would not stay put for long. He had established churches in Galatia and Phrygia and would now return to them to with a fatherly heart to love and strengthen them. Paul was always deeply committed to spreading the influence of God’s kingdom one heart at at time through active evangelism and church building but he never reduced those churches and converts to a numbers game. They weren’t just conquests or numbers for Paul. He cared deeply for each church, each community, and each person. Paul was truly an evangelist and a shepherd.
Devotional Thought
Paul was constantly working towards being sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether he led Paul towards the expected or the unexpected and uncomfortable. Paul’s loyalty was to the Spirit, not himself or his own desires. Are you equally committed to following the guidance of the Spirit? Have you trained yourself to even discern the Spirit’s guidance and do you listen when he does guide you? To what is he calling you right now?
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of a crime or of moral evil, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. 15 But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don't want to be a judge of such things." 16 So he drove them from the judge's bench. 17 Then they all [f] seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judge's bench. But none of these things concerned Gallio.
The Return Trip to Antioch
18 So Paul, having stayed on for many days, said good-bye to the brothers and sailed away to Syria. Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He shaved his head at Cenchreae, because he had taken a vow. 19 When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and engaged in discussion with [g] the Jews. 20 And though they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, 21 but said good-bye and stated, [h] "I'll come back to you again, if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, [i] and went down to Antioch. 23 He set out, traveling through one place after another in the Galatian territory and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Dig Deeper
Last year an American football player made a vow at the beginning of the season that he was not going to shave his face until his team made it to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. The attention that he received for this little stunt grew by the week both as a result of his team being very good and having a legitimate chance to make the Super Bowl and the fact that his beard was growing quite burly over the course of a long season. By the time the playoffs came around, his beard was in the realm of a fine Grizzly Adams-like beard. He continued to vow that he would not shave his beard off until he made it to the Super Bowl, which would have been interesting if his team had not made it, but they did win each round of the playoffs and made their way to the Super Bowl. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, his beard got a great deal of attention. He had vowed to grow it until he played in a Super Bowl and he had made it. Eventually his team lost in the Super Bowl but shortly after the game, with his vow fulfilled, he shaved his beard and came out publicly a few days later clean-shaven and ready to take on the challenge of the next season.
As Paul continued on with his journey of spreading the gospel throughout the world, he faced many challenges of different kinds. As he was beginning the journey back home to Antioch, Luke briefly mentions that Paul shaved his head because of a vow but doesn’t give us any more information than that. Commentators have long puzzled over what type of vow Paul was taking and what it meant. We can state with absolute certainty that he had not taken a vow to play in the Super Bowl. Some have suggested that he took a strict Nazarite vow which often involved not cutting one’s hair but strict vows of that nature were not taken outside of the land of Israel and always ended in Jerusalem so it is unlikely that it was a vow of that type. What is more likely is that Paul engaged in a typical but not formal Jewish custom of making vows that reminded them of a special circumstance or time period that they were offering to God. It is quite reasonable that Paul had chosen to undertake such a vow when God guided him to stay in Corinth to build up the ministry there for a time much longer than he had originally planned. It is quite possible, if this speculation is correct, that Paul was growing his hair as a sign of trust in God’s provision and protection through a long time in Corinth. Now as he left the region, he would shave his head to signify that God had indeed come through and that specific time was over.
But before he left the region of Achaia, Paul would be dragged before the authorities for one more important encounter, this time with the proconsul, Gallio. The charge against Paul was a familiar one that was lodged against the apostles and the early church most often. They were persuading people to worship God contrary to the Law of Moses. The church was constantly facing dual charges on either end of the spectrum. The Jews charged that the Christian belief followed in the blasphemous footsteps of their so-called Messiah, Jesus. They truly believed, as Paul once had, that the Christians were encouraging Jews to abandon their faith, disregard the Law, disrespect Moses, and therefore they stood as no better than the pagans.
On the other hand, the Romans were quite wary of the early Christians, especially as it became more and more clear that this was not just an offshoot of Judaism but was something entirely different. It might seem odd that Rome would have a problem with Christianity being that it was an empire that was quite tolerant of other religions as long as they didn’t pose a threat to the Empire itself. So how could a group that was built on the teachings of love and non-violence of their Messiah pose a threat? It was because they were not a typical religion. Rome would have been quite happy to allow just another group that held their private religious beliefs within the confines of their own community. But the Christians, although not political or militaristic, truly believed that Jesus was the true King of the world and this meant that Caesar was not. They were determined to live that way and live by the values of the kingdom to which they belonged in heart and loyalty. Rome may not have completely understood that but they saw the potential threat and were determined to stop it. This meant that the Christians typically found themselves squeezed between the religious zeal of the Jews and the political wariness of the Romans.
But as Paul stepped before Gallio, it was still early in the Christian development and Christianity had not yet fully gained the attention of the non-Jewish world and certainly the Christian community was not fully understood by the Romans. Gallio, like many in the pagan world at this time, still saw the Christian and Jewish conflict as an in-house squabble that they did not want to deal with. Gallio did not want to get involved what what he understood as arguments over things that the Romans didn’t believe, didn’t understand, and didn’t care about.
This might seem like a negative decision for Paul and the disciples but it was actually a great victory for them. It basically gave the Christian community a new freedom, at least in the region of southern and central Greece. Gallio’s decision meant that Christianity was still being viewed as a part of Judaism which meant that they would be afforded the same freedom that was allowed to the Jewish faith. In addition, he was clearly telling the Jewish leadership that he didn’t want to hear about any more complaints that they had with the Christians. For now, Rome would not do their dirty work.
Luke does not make it clear as to why Sosthenes was beaten and by who but he does make clear that Gallio was no saint. His decision was favorable for Paul but was not based in godliness or justice but convenience for him and Rome. Now he turns a blind eye to a crowd grabbing and beating a man. It may have been that the Greeks grabbed Sosthenes and beat him but it is more likely that the Jews beat their own synagogue leader either for losing the case before Gallio and losing the honor of the community or because he had somehow demonstrated Christian sympathies during the trial. Bolstering this last possibility is that Paul mentions someone named Sosthenes in 1 Corinthians 1:1 as his co-author (possibly the same man as the one in this passage, but not necessarily).
As Paul’s journey was coming to an end he left and headed towards Ephesus. God had prompted him to stay in the region of Corinth for longer than he had planned but now it was time to move on. It would make sense that if his vow was a remembrance and thanksgiving vow to God for his provision during his time in that region that as he left the region and headed toward Jerusalem that it was a good time to end the vow and give final thanks to God.
Paul finally arrived in Ephesus, in the province of Asia. He had earlier been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now in Ephesus, things seem to go well and Paul is asked to stay more and continue to preach the gospel, but Paul seemed to discern that the time was still not right for a full-scale ministry in Ephesus, at least it was not the time for Paul. But he did leave Aquila and Priscilla behind to build up the church. Paul was clearly a man who was constantly in touch with the guidance of the Spirit as he revealed God’s will to him and did not feel that he had to do everything himself. He would later urge Timothy to teach the ministry and gospel to faithful men who would be equipped to pass it on to others (2 Timothy 2:2) and that is precisely what he was doing here.
Verse 22 is a bit cryptic but it is likely that when Luke says that Paul “went up and greeted the church,” he is referring to Paul going to visit the church in Jerusalem (although he could simply be referring to the church in Caesarea, but it would be worded oddly if that were the case). What Luke was most likely telling us was that Paul was always accountable in his ministry to the church family at large. He was not a lone-gun but kept in contact with the historic center of the church and gave them occasional updates of his activities. Paul then traveled on to his “home” church in Antioch for a short time.
But even on arriving back at “home,” Paul would not stay put for long. He had established churches in Galatia and Phrygia and would now return to them to with a fatherly heart to love and strengthen them. Paul was always deeply committed to spreading the influence of God’s kingdom one heart at at time through active evangelism and church building but he never reduced those churches and converts to a numbers game. They weren’t just conquests or numbers for Paul. He cared deeply for each church, each community, and each person. Paul was truly an evangelist and a shepherd.
Devotional Thought
Paul was constantly working towards being sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether he led Paul towards the expected or the unexpected and uncomfortable. Paul’s loyalty was to the Spirit, not himself or his own desires. Are you equally committed to following the guidance of the Spirit? Have you trained yourself to even discern the Spirit’s guidance and do you listen when he does guide you? To what is he calling you right now?
Monday, January 02, 2012
Acts 18:1-11
Note: Sorry for the long delay in resuming our journey through Acts. Look for new devotionals every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
Dig Deeper
There’s always a difficult line to discern when you feel that someone else is in error in their beliefs or practices concerning God. You have to decide whether they are truly in error and lacking some vital information about God and his word or whether it is simply just a difference in small matters of opinion that can be safely tucked into the category of disputable matters. A few years back, for instance, I had an interaction with a young man who was convinced that I was not part of God’s kingdom because our church will occasionally have musical instruments playing during our song worship. I’m pretty convinced biblically that this is one of those disputable matters and while I respect his right to feel that way, it is probably not a matter over which someone needs to be categorized as embracing false doctrine.
On the other hand, I had another friend awhile back who believed that water baptism into the life of Christ is not necessary for salvation, and that in fact, there are three types of ordained baptism in the New Testament. Neither of these view is biblical, of course, and flies directly in the face of Scriptures that state plainly that God graciously saves us (Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:20) and forgives our sin (Acts 2:38) at baptism and that there is only one baptism (Eph. 4:5). As much as I would have liked to not have to confront him about this, it is serious business and so I felt that his error would be on my head if I didn’t at least try to proclaim the truth to him. As uncomfortable as it was, I did share the biblical truth with him although he rejected it, citing the fact that that’s not what he had been taught growing up, and he respected his pastor more than anyone else and just didn’t believe he could be wrong. Despite an inability to demonstrate the truth of his belief biblically, he sadly chose to side with what another person had told him. He didn’t listen to the biblical truth, but I had done all that I could do.
Paul certainly felt the burden of believing that he had the truth to proclaim to Jews and Gentiles alike wherever he went. He did have one advantage in that Christianity was such a new faith based on the recent life and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah that it was a safe assumption wherever he went and whoever he talked to that they needed to have the truth of the gospel proclaimed to them. There were very few gray areas between the truth and the false gospels that had popped up yet, although they were there already and would soon explode in scope and number. But Paul took his role as apostle quite seriously and felt that if he didn’t proclaim the truth of the Messiah to people wherever he went, regardless of the consequences of sharing that truth, that their blood would be on his head. But once he had faithfully proclaimed the gospel, that was all he could do. It was not his job to get people to respond. Once they heard the truth the responsibility shifted to them.
Despite the fact that Paul had been beckoned by the power of the Holy Spirit to Macedonia, things had not gone personally well for him there. Paul was now arriving in Corinth but still concerned about how things were going for Silas and Timothy who had remained for a time in Macedonia. Corinth was a metropolitan center that was teeming with life and energy. It was one of those cities that has a nearly palpable pulse wherever you go. But it had a dark side. As a commercial port it had attracted all types of people including a Jewish community, but it had a terrible reputation for immorality. Corinth was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple for her with over 1,000 prostitutes housed there. In the ancient world, the term “Corinthian” became almost synonymous with the term “immoral”. Corinth was a fiercely Roman colony that was very proud of it’s “Roman-ness” and just as committed to the Roman gods and the Roman way of life.
Paul arrived in Corinth in “fear and trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3) after his previous experiences, but he was not deterred. Rather he was still determined to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and nothing else in Corinth, a message that quickly separated the truth seekers from those who would cling to their own myths, idols, and opinions.
He must have been quite encouraged, though, to have met Aquila and Priscilla right away. Luke never says for certain that they were already Christians, but that seems to be the implication. They had recently arrived from Rome after the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, an act which included Jewish Christians as well. They were making a living as tentmakers, a profession which required skill in working with both leather and cilcium (a cloth made of goat’s hair from Paul’s native region of Cilcia) tent material. Paul was also a skilled tentmaker which was not that unusual as most rabbis and Pharisees in Paul’s day earned their own living through a trade of some sort. It seems that they quickly agreed to let Paul live with them and to stay on and work with them as well, an arrangement that allowed Paul to support himself while preaching the gospel.
Paul must have been relieved on two levels when Silas and Timothy arrived safely from Macedonia. First, he knew that they were safe and that he could finally receive some news as to the progress of the gospel in Macedonia (1 Thess. 3:6-10). Second, they apparently brought with them monetary support from the disciples in Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:15-16). This allowed him lay down his tentmaker tools for awhile and fully devote himself to the message of the gospel which was what Paul wanted to do as much as possible to fulfill what he felt was his true calling in the Lord.
As an apostle, Paul knew that his work of declaring the truth of Jesus as the Messiah to the Jew first and then the Gentile was vitally important and he took that task seriously. He understood that when his fellow Jews, or anyone else for that matter, rejected the gospel they also rejected their only chance to be brought into the family of God. Preaching the gospel was his responsibility. If Paul failed to render that duty then he felt that he would have to answer to God for that. But once he had done so faithfully, he was innocent. Once the responsibility of preaching the gospel had been dispensed the onus of accountability shifted to the hearers and how they would respond to the truth.
When the Jews in Corinth did reject the gospel and began to be abusive towards Paul, as they had in so many other places, Paul shook his clothes out towards them. This was no empty gesture or a mere sign of frustration. Shaking out one’s garments was a sign of breaking fellowship with them (Neh. 5:13). It was the kind of gesture that Jews would usually aim towards the pagan Gentiles. It was an indicator form God’s servant that, in his eyes, they had put themselves in the category of the godless Gentiles and were no better off when it came to their position in God’s family. They, just like the Gentiles that they so quickly looked down upon, were also cut off from God’s family.
Whether the opposition that Paul faced forced his move to the house of Titius Justus or the persecution ramped up as a result of his move and subsequent success there remains an open question, but Paul did eventually move to Titius’ house which was right next door to the synagogue and would have been a constant “in-your-face” reminder of the success and power of the gospel that they had so summarily rejected. Most Romans had three names that they used under different circumstances so it is quite plausible that Titius Justus is one in the same with Gaius who was personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and who was still hosting the whole church in Corinth in his house when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. To have such a sizable house meant that Titius (Gaius?) was a prominent and wealthy member of Corinthian society but he was not the only prominent convert. The synagogue leader, Crispus, was also personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and presumably became one of the early leaders of the young church in Corinth. Despite his opposition, then, Paul had a great deal of success in bringing people, both prominent and poor (cf. 1 Cor. 11) into the kingdom of God and was doing so right next to the very synagogue that had rejected the gospel, complete with the former leader of that synagogue as one of the newest converts!
We have to speculate a bit at this point that Paul had become so accustomed to being run out of towns that perhaps he was bracing himself for another such incident. It is possible that having such a well respected convert like the synagogue leader, Crispus, might have actually padded Paul against some of the harshest opposition that he usually faced. Whatever the case, God felt that it was necessary to assure Paul that Corinth was precisely where he wanted him to be and to stay. Paul had desires to continue spreading the gospel and eventually make his way to Rome, but the time was not yet to come. For now, he was assured that God would bring him great success in Corinth and protect him while he stayed and built the church.
It must have been an exciting and yet challenging time for Paul as we know from his letters that the young church in Corinth was petulant and strong-willed but also passionate and full of zeal and energy. They were like an undisciplined teenager that was constantly ready to explode with pent-up energy. And perhaps that’s why God chose to have Paul stay for the 18 months that he did. Imagine the problems that might have developed in Corinth had Paul not stayed as long as he did to build, mature, and establish his relationship with the church there.
Devotional Thought
How do you feel about God’s call on your life to teach the truth to others, especially those that find themselves in serious biblical error? Are you willing to risk embarrassment, rejection, or even be ostracized for the sake of declaring the truth of the gospel to others? Remember, it’s not our responsibility to make them respond positively but it is our responsibility to declare the truth to those in error.
In Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
Dig Deeper
There’s always a difficult line to discern when you feel that someone else is in error in their beliefs or practices concerning God. You have to decide whether they are truly in error and lacking some vital information about God and his word or whether it is simply just a difference in small matters of opinion that can be safely tucked into the category of disputable matters. A few years back, for instance, I had an interaction with a young man who was convinced that I was not part of God’s kingdom because our church will occasionally have musical instruments playing during our song worship. I’m pretty convinced biblically that this is one of those disputable matters and while I respect his right to feel that way, it is probably not a matter over which someone needs to be categorized as embracing false doctrine.
On the other hand, I had another friend awhile back who believed that water baptism into the life of Christ is not necessary for salvation, and that in fact, there are three types of ordained baptism in the New Testament. Neither of these view is biblical, of course, and flies directly in the face of Scriptures that state plainly that God graciously saves us (Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:20) and forgives our sin (Acts 2:38) at baptism and that there is only one baptism (Eph. 4:5). As much as I would have liked to not have to confront him about this, it is serious business and so I felt that his error would be on my head if I didn’t at least try to proclaim the truth to him. As uncomfortable as it was, I did share the biblical truth with him although he rejected it, citing the fact that that’s not what he had been taught growing up, and he respected his pastor more than anyone else and just didn’t believe he could be wrong. Despite an inability to demonstrate the truth of his belief biblically, he sadly chose to side with what another person had told him. He didn’t listen to the biblical truth, but I had done all that I could do.
Paul certainly felt the burden of believing that he had the truth to proclaim to Jews and Gentiles alike wherever he went. He did have one advantage in that Christianity was such a new faith based on the recent life and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah that it was a safe assumption wherever he went and whoever he talked to that they needed to have the truth of the gospel proclaimed to them. There were very few gray areas between the truth and the false gospels that had popped up yet, although they were there already and would soon explode in scope and number. But Paul took his role as apostle quite seriously and felt that if he didn’t proclaim the truth of the Messiah to people wherever he went, regardless of the consequences of sharing that truth, that their blood would be on his head. But once he had faithfully proclaimed the gospel, that was all he could do. It was not his job to get people to respond. Once they heard the truth the responsibility shifted to them.
Despite the fact that Paul had been beckoned by the power of the Holy Spirit to Macedonia, things had not gone personally well for him there. Paul was now arriving in Corinth but still concerned about how things were going for Silas and Timothy who had remained for a time in Macedonia. Corinth was a metropolitan center that was teeming with life and energy. It was one of those cities that has a nearly palpable pulse wherever you go. But it had a dark side. As a commercial port it had attracted all types of people including a Jewish community, but it had a terrible reputation for immorality. Corinth was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple for her with over 1,000 prostitutes housed there. In the ancient world, the term “Corinthian” became almost synonymous with the term “immoral”. Corinth was a fiercely Roman colony that was very proud of it’s “Roman-ness” and just as committed to the Roman gods and the Roman way of life.
Paul arrived in Corinth in “fear and trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3) after his previous experiences, but he was not deterred. Rather he was still determined to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and nothing else in Corinth, a message that quickly separated the truth seekers from those who would cling to their own myths, idols, and opinions.
He must have been quite encouraged, though, to have met Aquila and Priscilla right away. Luke never says for certain that they were already Christians, but that seems to be the implication. They had recently arrived from Rome after the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, an act which included Jewish Christians as well. They were making a living as tentmakers, a profession which required skill in working with both leather and cilcium (a cloth made of goat’s hair from Paul’s native region of Cilcia) tent material. Paul was also a skilled tentmaker which was not that unusual as most rabbis and Pharisees in Paul’s day earned their own living through a trade of some sort. It seems that they quickly agreed to let Paul live with them and to stay on and work with them as well, an arrangement that allowed Paul to support himself while preaching the gospel.
Paul must have been relieved on two levels when Silas and Timothy arrived safely from Macedonia. First, he knew that they were safe and that he could finally receive some news as to the progress of the gospel in Macedonia (1 Thess. 3:6-10). Second, they apparently brought with them monetary support from the disciples in Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:15-16). This allowed him lay down his tentmaker tools for awhile and fully devote himself to the message of the gospel which was what Paul wanted to do as much as possible to fulfill what he felt was his true calling in the Lord.
As an apostle, Paul knew that his work of declaring the truth of Jesus as the Messiah to the Jew first and then the Gentile was vitally important and he took that task seriously. He understood that when his fellow Jews, or anyone else for that matter, rejected the gospel they also rejected their only chance to be brought into the family of God. Preaching the gospel was his responsibility. If Paul failed to render that duty then he felt that he would have to answer to God for that. But once he had done so faithfully, he was innocent. Once the responsibility of preaching the gospel had been dispensed the onus of accountability shifted to the hearers and how they would respond to the truth.
When the Jews in Corinth did reject the gospel and began to be abusive towards Paul, as they had in so many other places, Paul shook his clothes out towards them. This was no empty gesture or a mere sign of frustration. Shaking out one’s garments was a sign of breaking fellowship with them (Neh. 5:13). It was the kind of gesture that Jews would usually aim towards the pagan Gentiles. It was an indicator form God’s servant that, in his eyes, they had put themselves in the category of the godless Gentiles and were no better off when it came to their position in God’s family. They, just like the Gentiles that they so quickly looked down upon, were also cut off from God’s family.
Whether the opposition that Paul faced forced his move to the house of Titius Justus or the persecution ramped up as a result of his move and subsequent success there remains an open question, but Paul did eventually move to Titius’ house which was right next door to the synagogue and would have been a constant “in-your-face” reminder of the success and power of the gospel that they had so summarily rejected. Most Romans had three names that they used under different circumstances so it is quite plausible that Titius Justus is one in the same with Gaius who was personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and who was still hosting the whole church in Corinth in his house when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. To have such a sizable house meant that Titius (Gaius?) was a prominent and wealthy member of Corinthian society but he was not the only prominent convert. The synagogue leader, Crispus, was also personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and presumably became one of the early leaders of the young church in Corinth. Despite his opposition, then, Paul had a great deal of success in bringing people, both prominent and poor (cf. 1 Cor. 11) into the kingdom of God and was doing so right next to the very synagogue that had rejected the gospel, complete with the former leader of that synagogue as one of the newest converts!
We have to speculate a bit at this point that Paul had become so accustomed to being run out of towns that perhaps he was bracing himself for another such incident. It is possible that having such a well respected convert like the synagogue leader, Crispus, might have actually padded Paul against some of the harshest opposition that he usually faced. Whatever the case, God felt that it was necessary to assure Paul that Corinth was precisely where he wanted him to be and to stay. Paul had desires to continue spreading the gospel and eventually make his way to Rome, but the time was not yet to come. For now, he was assured that God would bring him great success in Corinth and protect him while he stayed and built the church.
It must have been an exciting and yet challenging time for Paul as we know from his letters that the young church in Corinth was petulant and strong-willed but also passionate and full of zeal and energy. They were like an undisciplined teenager that was constantly ready to explode with pent-up energy. And perhaps that’s why God chose to have Paul stay for the 18 months that he did. Imagine the problems that might have developed in Corinth had Paul not stayed as long as he did to build, mature, and establish his relationship with the church there.
Devotional Thought
How do you feel about God’s call on your life to teach the truth to others, especially those that find themselves in serious biblical error? Are you willing to risk embarrassment, rejection, or even be ostracized for the sake of declaring the truth of the gospel to others? Remember, it’s not our responsibility to make them respond positively but it is our responsibility to declare the truth to those in error.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Acts 17:22-34
I want to thank all of those who so faithfully read these commentaries on the email list, the blog site, and on Facebook. I hope that you continue to find them helpful. I did want to let you know that I will not be able to post for about a month as we will be Africa on another ministry trip. This will be the last commentary until the middle of September. Thanks and God bless.
In Athens
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Dig Deeper
As a new campus minister of a college ministry you would expect that you would be doing many more weddings than funerals, yet during my first two years in that role, I actually wound up performing more funeral ceremonies than weddings. The fact is, funerals are much tougher to do than weddings and I’m glad that over the years I have now evened that out and the number of weddings that I have done have actually surpassed the funerals. But I recall one funeral in particular where I felt like I was facing a bit of a hostile audience. I had been asked to perform the funeral for someone that I had never even met although they were close to a close family member of mine. To top it off, I knew hardly anyone that was actually at the funeral. Yet, I was asked to really preach the gospel and present it to a group of people that were necessarily starving for it at the moment. To make matters even more difficult, the audience was not a homogenous group. They varied from skeptics, atheists, and those that were very anti-God and anti-Christianity to those that were very religious (although the fruit of their lives seemed to belie their religiosity), and everything in between. But as I stood up and stared out at the audience, I had a daunting opportunity ahead of me, but it was an opportunity nonetheless. I found out that day just how difficult it can be to face an audience that is not immediately open to your message and who are coming from very different perspectives. It is not an easy task.
This is what was facing Paul in the Areopagus, only many times over. He had seized on the opportunity to preach the gospel in one of the most famous cities of the ancient world; a city that had a reputation for wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy. Athens was home to some of the greatest thinkers that the world had to offer. To top it off he was invited to the venue where the very best and brightest met and discussed the issues of the day. It doesn’t seem that Paul was being interrogated or asked to speak to a formal council or trial but all of the “big-wigs” of Athens were there and wanting to hear what Paul had to say. That’s not to imply that they were open to Paul’s message, they were mostly curious. They wanted to see what this babbler could come up with, primarily, it seems, for the purpose of amusing themselves.
So Paul had a huge task ahead of him. The audience was hostile but it was also full of men who held very different beliefs and philosophies. That meant that Paul had to present the gospel in such a way to make it approachable to people whose beliefs were sometimes in direct opposition to one another. He would have to try to be all things to all men but to do it at the same time. This was his chance. He was being given a hearing and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he would do his best to take advantage of it. It is not, however, very likely at all that what Luke records here was the actual speech that Paul gave. What we have here is most likely a summary of what Paul said. This was after all the guy who could easily preach from sundown until past midnight so surely he took advantage of his moment before the Areopagus.
Many have taken Paul’s opening statement to the Areopagus as words of conciliation creating a bond of connection through compliment but ancient philosopher Lucian of Samosata recorded that complimentary openings “to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus were discouraged.” Therefore it was more likely simply an observation of fact that was neither complimentary or condescending. Athens was a very religious town that was very proud of its wisdom and knowledge so there was a bit of an irony that a town that was so sure of its own wisdom and that was so religious was also ignorant about the very gods that they sought to worship.
The Athenians had statues in honor of unknown gods as a safety precaution so that they weren’t slighting any gods that should have been receiving honor. This made sense for both the Epicureans who believed that if the gods did exist they were so distant that it would be difficult if not impossible to know them, and the Stoics who believed that the gods were one with the universe and not at all separate. Thus, the picture of the divine realm was fuzzy at best, so it was wise in their eyes to cover all of their bases.
What they did not know or understand Paul was going to declare to them in no uncertain terms. As he did so, he masterfully both identified with, at times, and challenged, at other points, both the Stoics and the Epicureans. He would show the Epicureans that they were correct that God was separate from his creation but that the true God was not unknowable. Rather, he was intensely knowable and wanted to be known intimately by the humans that he created. To the Stoics, Paul would agree that God was involved with every aspect of his creation but he would challenge them by demonstrating that he was separate from it and above it.
One amusing feature of the pagan gods that Paul seized upon was that they needed humans badly. They needed people to bring them food in order to eat and they needed people to build temples for them (see Isa. 46:1 and Jer. 10:5 for examples of the futility of the gods). But even at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem Solomon pointed out that Yahweh was bringing himself down to the level of his creation, he certainly did not need a Temple and most assuredly could not be contained within it (1 Ki. 8:27). This God that Paul was proclaiming to them was not just another of the gods. He was the creator of the entire world and everything in it and he needed nothing from human beings as he expressed in Psalm 50:12 while clearly sticking his thumb in the eye of the so-called gods, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Rather than needing something from humans, God has given us humans everything including our life and breath and everything else we have, which makes denying him all the more sadly ironic.
God created one man, Adam, and from him brought forth all of the nations of men. This meant that nations need not compete against one another or feel that it was necessary or even natural to all have their own gods. No, the Most High God was responsible for all of the nations. He knew who they were and had set the boundaries for each nation. Nothing in all of history has happened by chance but is all subject to God’s ruling sovereignty. Paul points out that even some of the poets from that region at least understood this in part, although certainly not fully, as they declared that we are God’s offspring. Paul certainly doesn’t mean that all nations are part of God’s promised family but that all people find their origins in God’s creative power.
God’s purpose in everything that he did throughout history, especially culminating in the Messiah (as Paul will get to rather quickly), was that people would know him. Paul’s language implies a picture of groping around in the dark on the part of humans as they sought to find the truth of God even though he was right there all the time. The futile human search for God had been a bit like someone deciding the answer cannot be four and then groping around for years trying to determine what the answer to two plus two is.
Because all humans come from Yahweh, the one, true God it should be obvious that he is not one of the manmade Gods that have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear (Ps. 115:3-8). He is not one of those worthless gods who turn their followers into shells of a human being that are just as worthless and just as spiritually blind as those images that are crafted by humans. Paul, in essence, points out the sheer lunacy of worshipping a god that you just created with your own hands. In contrast, the true God made everything including us.
But the obvious question that this would raise was, “If this God was truly supreme over all creation why would he allow the nations to live in such open defiance and ignorance of him.” Paul’s response to that is threefold. First, God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now things have changed. Second, he commands that all the nations repent and worship him as the only true God. Third, there is a coming judgment where all nations, indeed all humans will have to answer for their idolatry. This repentance is not an option that will bring some small advantage to those who choose that route. It is a command for all humans everywhere.
The proof of all of this was as truth was the resurrection of Jesus. That showed that God’s age to come had indeed already started in the resurrection of the Messiah and that now that his new creation had broken in and started to set things right in the world and once the train had left the station there was no holding it back. God would indeed set the whole world right by brining it into the life of the Messiah and under his authority. There was a great irony in the fact that Paul was declaring in the Areopagus that the solution to the problems of the entire world was found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a fifth century play written by Aeschylus, the god Apollo dedicated the ground of the Areopagus saying, among other things, “when a man dies, and his blood is spilled on the ground, there is no resurrection.” What was ruled out as impossible, was now, Paul was telling them, the very thing on which the whole world was being turned right side up.
The resurrection, as Paul declared to the Corinthians, was foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), and the Athenians were no different. Most of them sneered at the absurdity of such a thing. There idols were so firmly set in their own hearts that they were absolutely blind to the truth. But some were open to Paul’s message and wanted to hear more. A number of people in Athens did come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, who according to church tradition would later become the first church leader in Athens.
Paul had not only identified with both the Epicureans and Stoics but had also challenged them to the core of their beliefs. He had proven himself to be no mere babbler or one who scattered words around aimlessly. He had proclaimed to them the words of life, but the rest was up to them.
Devotional Thought
Paul was a particularly gifted thinker and preacher but what is most impressive here is that he was familiar with the beliefs of the people of his day and prepared to show them how the gospel both challenged their cherished beliefs and explained their unanswered questions. Do you make a serious effort to be just as prepared in our day as Paul was in his?
In Athens
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Dig Deeper
As a new campus minister of a college ministry you would expect that you would be doing many more weddings than funerals, yet during my first two years in that role, I actually wound up performing more funeral ceremonies than weddings. The fact is, funerals are much tougher to do than weddings and I’m glad that over the years I have now evened that out and the number of weddings that I have done have actually surpassed the funerals. But I recall one funeral in particular where I felt like I was facing a bit of a hostile audience. I had been asked to perform the funeral for someone that I had never even met although they were close to a close family member of mine. To top it off, I knew hardly anyone that was actually at the funeral. Yet, I was asked to really preach the gospel and present it to a group of people that were necessarily starving for it at the moment. To make matters even more difficult, the audience was not a homogenous group. They varied from skeptics, atheists, and those that were very anti-God and anti-Christianity to those that were very religious (although the fruit of their lives seemed to belie their religiosity), and everything in between. But as I stood up and stared out at the audience, I had a daunting opportunity ahead of me, but it was an opportunity nonetheless. I found out that day just how difficult it can be to face an audience that is not immediately open to your message and who are coming from very different perspectives. It is not an easy task.
This is what was facing Paul in the Areopagus, only many times over. He had seized on the opportunity to preach the gospel in one of the most famous cities of the ancient world; a city that had a reputation for wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy. Athens was home to some of the greatest thinkers that the world had to offer. To top it off he was invited to the venue where the very best and brightest met and discussed the issues of the day. It doesn’t seem that Paul was being interrogated or asked to speak to a formal council or trial but all of the “big-wigs” of Athens were there and wanting to hear what Paul had to say. That’s not to imply that they were open to Paul’s message, they were mostly curious. They wanted to see what this babbler could come up with, primarily, it seems, for the purpose of amusing themselves.
So Paul had a huge task ahead of him. The audience was hostile but it was also full of men who held very different beliefs and philosophies. That meant that Paul had to present the gospel in such a way to make it approachable to people whose beliefs were sometimes in direct opposition to one another. He would have to try to be all things to all men but to do it at the same time. This was his chance. He was being given a hearing and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he would do his best to take advantage of it. It is not, however, very likely at all that what Luke records here was the actual speech that Paul gave. What we have here is most likely a summary of what Paul said. This was after all the guy who could easily preach from sundown until past midnight so surely he took advantage of his moment before the Areopagus.
Many have taken Paul’s opening statement to the Areopagus as words of conciliation creating a bond of connection through compliment but ancient philosopher Lucian of Samosata recorded that complimentary openings “to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus were discouraged.” Therefore it was more likely simply an observation of fact that was neither complimentary or condescending. Athens was a very religious town that was very proud of its wisdom and knowledge so there was a bit of an irony that a town that was so sure of its own wisdom and that was so religious was also ignorant about the very gods that they sought to worship.
The Athenians had statues in honor of unknown gods as a safety precaution so that they weren’t slighting any gods that should have been receiving honor. This made sense for both the Epicureans who believed that if the gods did exist they were so distant that it would be difficult if not impossible to know them, and the Stoics who believed that the gods were one with the universe and not at all separate. Thus, the picture of the divine realm was fuzzy at best, so it was wise in their eyes to cover all of their bases.
What they did not know or understand Paul was going to declare to them in no uncertain terms. As he did so, he masterfully both identified with, at times, and challenged, at other points, both the Stoics and the Epicureans. He would show the Epicureans that they were correct that God was separate from his creation but that the true God was not unknowable. Rather, he was intensely knowable and wanted to be known intimately by the humans that he created. To the Stoics, Paul would agree that God was involved with every aspect of his creation but he would challenge them by demonstrating that he was separate from it and above it.
One amusing feature of the pagan gods that Paul seized upon was that they needed humans badly. They needed people to bring them food in order to eat and they needed people to build temples for them (see Isa. 46:1 and Jer. 10:5 for examples of the futility of the gods). But even at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem Solomon pointed out that Yahweh was bringing himself down to the level of his creation, he certainly did not need a Temple and most assuredly could not be contained within it (1 Ki. 8:27). This God that Paul was proclaiming to them was not just another of the gods. He was the creator of the entire world and everything in it and he needed nothing from human beings as he expressed in Psalm 50:12 while clearly sticking his thumb in the eye of the so-called gods, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Rather than needing something from humans, God has given us humans everything including our life and breath and everything else we have, which makes denying him all the more sadly ironic.
God created one man, Adam, and from him brought forth all of the nations of men. This meant that nations need not compete against one another or feel that it was necessary or even natural to all have their own gods. No, the Most High God was responsible for all of the nations. He knew who they were and had set the boundaries for each nation. Nothing in all of history has happened by chance but is all subject to God’s ruling sovereignty. Paul points out that even some of the poets from that region at least understood this in part, although certainly not fully, as they declared that we are God’s offspring. Paul certainly doesn’t mean that all nations are part of God’s promised family but that all people find their origins in God’s creative power.
God’s purpose in everything that he did throughout history, especially culminating in the Messiah (as Paul will get to rather quickly), was that people would know him. Paul’s language implies a picture of groping around in the dark on the part of humans as they sought to find the truth of God even though he was right there all the time. The futile human search for God had been a bit like someone deciding the answer cannot be four and then groping around for years trying to determine what the answer to two plus two is.
Because all humans come from Yahweh, the one, true God it should be obvious that he is not one of the manmade Gods that have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear (Ps. 115:3-8). He is not one of those worthless gods who turn their followers into shells of a human being that are just as worthless and just as spiritually blind as those images that are crafted by humans. Paul, in essence, points out the sheer lunacy of worshipping a god that you just created with your own hands. In contrast, the true God made everything including us.
But the obvious question that this would raise was, “If this God was truly supreme over all creation why would he allow the nations to live in such open defiance and ignorance of him.” Paul’s response to that is threefold. First, God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now things have changed. Second, he commands that all the nations repent and worship him as the only true God. Third, there is a coming judgment where all nations, indeed all humans will have to answer for their idolatry. This repentance is not an option that will bring some small advantage to those who choose that route. It is a command for all humans everywhere.
The proof of all of this was as truth was the resurrection of Jesus. That showed that God’s age to come had indeed already started in the resurrection of the Messiah and that now that his new creation had broken in and started to set things right in the world and once the train had left the station there was no holding it back. God would indeed set the whole world right by brining it into the life of the Messiah and under his authority. There was a great irony in the fact that Paul was declaring in the Areopagus that the solution to the problems of the entire world was found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a fifth century play written by Aeschylus, the god Apollo dedicated the ground of the Areopagus saying, among other things, “when a man dies, and his blood is spilled on the ground, there is no resurrection.” What was ruled out as impossible, was now, Paul was telling them, the very thing on which the whole world was being turned right side up.
The resurrection, as Paul declared to the Corinthians, was foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), and the Athenians were no different. Most of them sneered at the absurdity of such a thing. There idols were so firmly set in their own hearts that they were absolutely blind to the truth. But some were open to Paul’s message and wanted to hear more. A number of people in Athens did come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, who according to church tradition would later become the first church leader in Athens.
Paul had not only identified with both the Epicureans and Stoics but had also challenged them to the core of their beliefs. He had proven himself to be no mere babbler or one who scattered words around aimlessly. He had proclaimed to them the words of life, but the rest was up to them.
Devotional Thought
Paul was a particularly gifted thinker and preacher but what is most impressive here is that he was familiar with the beliefs of the people of his day and prepared to show them how the gospel both challenged their cherished beliefs and explained their unanswered questions. Do you make a serious effort to be just as prepared in our day as Paul was in his?
Monday, August 08, 2011
Acts 17:10-21
In Berea
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I, while I was coaching high school basketball, I was asked one summer to coach a basketball team consisting of all-stars from our entire conference. This collection of the very best players in our conference would eventually go and play in a summer tournament against the very best players in our entire state. As we began to practice and prepare, however, I was a little worried. We had very good teams in our conference but they tended to fall into two different camps as far as their style of play went. Most of the teams were very high-powered and fast-paced teams that like to run-and-gun (a basketball term that refers to playing a less-physical, faster style that seeks to score a lot of points). A few teams, though, including mine, tended towards a much slower and more physical type of game that relied less on physical talent and more on precision and doing things well. The higher scoring teams and their players had learned how to play each other and had to learn how to play those slow-down teams as well. In the same turn, the slower-paced teams had to learn how to play teams like themselves as well as the running teams.
My worry stemmed from the fact that I knew that when we went to the tournament that we were going to play in, most of the teams we would be playing had a style that none of our players had really faced before. These teams would be physical, precise, and well-coached but they would also move, set picks, and cut at a fast pass and be willing to score quickly. They would have elements of both of the styles that our players had learned to play but it was a hybrid and was, therefore, a completely new style from what they had played. If they were not ready for all of the quick-moving picks and cuts, they would get run off of the floor. If they couldn’t learn to go up against that style they would be dead in the water and not get very far in our upcoming test.
Up to this point, Paul and his merry band of missionaries had faced many challenges and had preached the Bible to both Jews and Gentiles alike. They preached the same gospel to everyone but they had learned to adapt to the audiences in such a way so that the presentation of the gospel would be effective. The result was that many Jews and even more Gentiles were streaming into the kingdom of God. But there was a different sort of test on the horizon. As they moved farther away from Jerusalem and deeper into the Greek and Roman dominated worlds, they were going to come up against the Greek philosophies that dominated the Greek worldview of both philosophers and everyday folk alike. This would be a different challenge for the gospel and if Paul and the other Christians weren’t up to it, the gospel would have a hard time appealing to the rest of the known world. If they couldn’t learn to go up against the philosophers they would be dead in the water and not get very far in a world dominated by Greek philosophy.
After a tough go of it in both Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul had to leave prematurely, at least according to his own wishes, his concerned brothers and sisters sent Paul to a town that was described in the ancient world as an out-of-the-way town. Presumably the hope was to keep Paul under the radar for a bit, but Paul seemed far more committed to his mission of spreading the gospel everywhere he went than he was in staying low-profile. So as soon as he arrived in Berea, he went straight for the synagogue, as he usually did, and began to announce the good news of the risen Messiah, the true king of the world.
No explanation is given as to why, but his reception by the Bereans went beyond anything Paul had experienced previously. As much as Paul and Luke loved the Thessalonicans, they considered the response of the Beareans even more noble. The Bereans that heard Paul preach included a high number of rather prominent and important men and women but what made them noble in Luke’s eyes was that they didn’t trust in their prominence. In fact, they humbly acknowledged that they were in need of hearing the word of God and to accept the truths found therein. They pushed aside their worldly position and humbled themselves to God’s word. They were so hesitant to follow human wisdom that they eagerly examined the Scriptures each day, accepting it as the arbiter of truth, to determine if Paul was merely teaching things that itching ears might want to hear or if the portrait of Jesus the Messiah that he was presenting truly came from the words of Scripture itself and Scripture alone. And they showed their eagerness not just in reading through the word of God but by meeting with Paul daily, not just on the Sabbath.
As encouraging and wonderful as that little respite must have been for Paul (and as a teacher of the Bible I know how refreshing it can be to come across people with such an appetite for God’s word and a humility to match), it was not to last long. The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Bearea preaching again and now had their chance to perhaps go there and finish what they had failed to do in their own town which was to shut Paul up permanently.
Once again, though, the believers were able to spirit Paul away, although it must have anguished him to know that once again the Spirit was allowing him to be led away from a town before he wanted to go. This time he would leave Silas and Timothy to strengthen the church as they were evidently able to stay a little more under the radar than Paul was. Paul would move on and send for them as soon as possible, this time landing in Athens. Athens was not the same important city that it had once been, but it was still an important center of thought, philosophy, and pagan belief. It would be the site of a stiff but necessary challenge for Paul and the gospel.
As Paul arrived in Athens, it dismayed him that such a center of earthly wisdom was so full of idols but it couldn’t have shocked him. Mankind’s problem from the beginning of human history has been that we would rather exalt our own flawed wisdom over the truth of God’s wisdom. In so doing, we emphasize one aspect or another of the creation over the creator, an act of idolatry. So whether it is statues of pagan gods or the god of materialism and everything in between the wisdom of the world will always set itself up against God’s truth. Athens would confirm what Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21)
Once again Paul went to the synagogue to preach but he quickly caught the attention of two of the big-boy-groups on the block, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the highest aim in life and the most worthwhile pleasure was a life of peace and tranquility free from pain, overriding desires, superstitious fears, and anxieties of life. They denied the involvement of any gods in the affairs of men to the point that they were almost functional atheists. The Stoics sought to live consistently with all of nature and believed in the supremacy of the rational human mind as well as being autonomous and self-sufficient. They were more or less pantheists who believed that God was in everything. Stoics held that quality of life was more important than life itself so they encouraged suicide to escape a life that could no longer be sustained with dignity. As influential as they were in their time, there is much to learn from Paul’s upcoming response to these groups since we still see many of their beliefs and philosophies scattered throughout our world today.
We don’t know precisely what these great thinkers and philosophers thought of Paul but we do know that they didn’t hold in very high esteem. They referred to him as a “seed-picker” (babbler), a term that meant he was of worthless character, a man who scattered scraps of worthless learning here and there. They charged him with being a preacher of foreign divinities, a charge that was laid against other teachers such as Socrates before being put to death. When he did begin to share his teaching with them, these supposedly learned men could not even grasp what he was saying. It’s difficult to detect in English but verse 18 seems to indicate that when Paul began preaching of Jesus and resurrection (using the Greek word “anastasis” for resurrection) that they misunderstood him and thought, at least at first, that he was speaking of some new gods named Jesus and his female consort Anastasis. They likely would have thought that he was teaching about some new gods of “healing” and “restoration”.
Finally they brought him for a full hearing before the Areopagus but it was likely to have fun and mock him more than it was to give him a fair hearing. They wanted to hear this “new” teaching but in the ancient world something that was “new” was generally looked down upon especially compared to ancient things. Luke’s somewhat rare aside in verse 21 takes on a highly sarcastic tone and indicates that the Athenians were going to listen to Paul for sheer amusement of hearing out these strange new teachings.
If they knew anything, they new that the babbling of a seed picker wouldn’t amount to much more than a fun morning. Surely whatever new religious beliefs this fool was going to share with them it surely wouldn’t stand up to their mighty intellects and their ability to shred apart second-rate philosophies. Paul was about to face one of his stiffest tests yet to see if he could appeal to this hostile crowd and open their ears and hearts, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, to the truth of the gospel.
Devotional Thought
Despite the fact that the Athenians were apparently mocking Paul and trying to have a little fun at his expense, Paul looked beyond the personal insult and saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Are there any personal insults or “unfair” situations that you need to wade through or overlook in order to share the gospel with someone today?
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I, while I was coaching high school basketball, I was asked one summer to coach a basketball team consisting of all-stars from our entire conference. This collection of the very best players in our conference would eventually go and play in a summer tournament against the very best players in our entire state. As we began to practice and prepare, however, I was a little worried. We had very good teams in our conference but they tended to fall into two different camps as far as their style of play went. Most of the teams were very high-powered and fast-paced teams that like to run-and-gun (a basketball term that refers to playing a less-physical, faster style that seeks to score a lot of points). A few teams, though, including mine, tended towards a much slower and more physical type of game that relied less on physical talent and more on precision and doing things well. The higher scoring teams and their players had learned how to play each other and had to learn how to play those slow-down teams as well. In the same turn, the slower-paced teams had to learn how to play teams like themselves as well as the running teams.
My worry stemmed from the fact that I knew that when we went to the tournament that we were going to play in, most of the teams we would be playing had a style that none of our players had really faced before. These teams would be physical, precise, and well-coached but they would also move, set picks, and cut at a fast pass and be willing to score quickly. They would have elements of both of the styles that our players had learned to play but it was a hybrid and was, therefore, a completely new style from what they had played. If they were not ready for all of the quick-moving picks and cuts, they would get run off of the floor. If they couldn’t learn to go up against that style they would be dead in the water and not get very far in our upcoming test.
Up to this point, Paul and his merry band of missionaries had faced many challenges and had preached the Bible to both Jews and Gentiles alike. They preached the same gospel to everyone but they had learned to adapt to the audiences in such a way so that the presentation of the gospel would be effective. The result was that many Jews and even more Gentiles were streaming into the kingdom of God. But there was a different sort of test on the horizon. As they moved farther away from Jerusalem and deeper into the Greek and Roman dominated worlds, they were going to come up against the Greek philosophies that dominated the Greek worldview of both philosophers and everyday folk alike. This would be a different challenge for the gospel and if Paul and the other Christians weren’t up to it, the gospel would have a hard time appealing to the rest of the known world. If they couldn’t learn to go up against the philosophers they would be dead in the water and not get very far in a world dominated by Greek philosophy.
After a tough go of it in both Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul had to leave prematurely, at least according to his own wishes, his concerned brothers and sisters sent Paul to a town that was described in the ancient world as an out-of-the-way town. Presumably the hope was to keep Paul under the radar for a bit, but Paul seemed far more committed to his mission of spreading the gospel everywhere he went than he was in staying low-profile. So as soon as he arrived in Berea, he went straight for the synagogue, as he usually did, and began to announce the good news of the risen Messiah, the true king of the world.
No explanation is given as to why, but his reception by the Bereans went beyond anything Paul had experienced previously. As much as Paul and Luke loved the Thessalonicans, they considered the response of the Beareans even more noble. The Bereans that heard Paul preach included a high number of rather prominent and important men and women but what made them noble in Luke’s eyes was that they didn’t trust in their prominence. In fact, they humbly acknowledged that they were in need of hearing the word of God and to accept the truths found therein. They pushed aside their worldly position and humbled themselves to God’s word. They were so hesitant to follow human wisdom that they eagerly examined the Scriptures each day, accepting it as the arbiter of truth, to determine if Paul was merely teaching things that itching ears might want to hear or if the portrait of Jesus the Messiah that he was presenting truly came from the words of Scripture itself and Scripture alone. And they showed their eagerness not just in reading through the word of God but by meeting with Paul daily, not just on the Sabbath.
As encouraging and wonderful as that little respite must have been for Paul (and as a teacher of the Bible I know how refreshing it can be to come across people with such an appetite for God’s word and a humility to match), it was not to last long. The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Bearea preaching again and now had their chance to perhaps go there and finish what they had failed to do in their own town which was to shut Paul up permanently.
Once again, though, the believers were able to spirit Paul away, although it must have anguished him to know that once again the Spirit was allowing him to be led away from a town before he wanted to go. This time he would leave Silas and Timothy to strengthen the church as they were evidently able to stay a little more under the radar than Paul was. Paul would move on and send for them as soon as possible, this time landing in Athens. Athens was not the same important city that it had once been, but it was still an important center of thought, philosophy, and pagan belief. It would be the site of a stiff but necessary challenge for Paul and the gospel.
As Paul arrived in Athens, it dismayed him that such a center of earthly wisdom was so full of idols but it couldn’t have shocked him. Mankind’s problem from the beginning of human history has been that we would rather exalt our own flawed wisdom over the truth of God’s wisdom. In so doing, we emphasize one aspect or another of the creation over the creator, an act of idolatry. So whether it is statues of pagan gods or the god of materialism and everything in between the wisdom of the world will always set itself up against God’s truth. Athens would confirm what Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21)
Once again Paul went to the synagogue to preach but he quickly caught the attention of two of the big-boy-groups on the block, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the highest aim in life and the most worthwhile pleasure was a life of peace and tranquility free from pain, overriding desires, superstitious fears, and anxieties of life. They denied the involvement of any gods in the affairs of men to the point that they were almost functional atheists. The Stoics sought to live consistently with all of nature and believed in the supremacy of the rational human mind as well as being autonomous and self-sufficient. They were more or less pantheists who believed that God was in everything. Stoics held that quality of life was more important than life itself so they encouraged suicide to escape a life that could no longer be sustained with dignity. As influential as they were in their time, there is much to learn from Paul’s upcoming response to these groups since we still see many of their beliefs and philosophies scattered throughout our world today.
We don’t know precisely what these great thinkers and philosophers thought of Paul but we do know that they didn’t hold in very high esteem. They referred to him as a “seed-picker” (babbler), a term that meant he was of worthless character, a man who scattered scraps of worthless learning here and there. They charged him with being a preacher of foreign divinities, a charge that was laid against other teachers such as Socrates before being put to death. When he did begin to share his teaching with them, these supposedly learned men could not even grasp what he was saying. It’s difficult to detect in English but verse 18 seems to indicate that when Paul began preaching of Jesus and resurrection (using the Greek word “anastasis” for resurrection) that they misunderstood him and thought, at least at first, that he was speaking of some new gods named Jesus and his female consort Anastasis. They likely would have thought that he was teaching about some new gods of “healing” and “restoration”.
Finally they brought him for a full hearing before the Areopagus but it was likely to have fun and mock him more than it was to give him a fair hearing. They wanted to hear this “new” teaching but in the ancient world something that was “new” was generally looked down upon especially compared to ancient things. Luke’s somewhat rare aside in verse 21 takes on a highly sarcastic tone and indicates that the Athenians were going to listen to Paul for sheer amusement of hearing out these strange new teachings.
If they knew anything, they new that the babbling of a seed picker wouldn’t amount to much more than a fun morning. Surely whatever new religious beliefs this fool was going to share with them it surely wouldn’t stand up to their mighty intellects and their ability to shred apart second-rate philosophies. Paul was about to face one of his stiffest tests yet to see if he could appeal to this hostile crowd and open their ears and hearts, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, to the truth of the gospel.
Devotional Thought
Despite the fact that the Athenians were apparently mocking Paul and trying to have a little fun at his expense, Paul looked beyond the personal insult and saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Are there any personal insults or “unfair” situations that you need to wade through or overlook in order to share the gospel with someone today?
Friday, August 05, 2011
Acts 17:1-9
In Thessalonica
1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
Dig Deeper
When I was about 17 years old I wanted to get a job. I tried out a few places here and there but I didn’t last long at any of them, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to work hard. Then my older sister started to tell me about the place where she was working. It sounded like a blast. Nearly everyday she would come home and tell me of all of the funny things that happened at work and the funny and cool people that she worked with there. I got to thinking after a while that this sounded just like my kind of place. I wanted to “work” someplace where I could have fun and laugh a lot and enjoy the people and not really have to actually work very much. The job was doing data entry on computers so it was basically typing on a computer and I figured how hard could that be. So I went and took a job there. But once I got there I found that my sister had left out some vital details. Some of the people there were fun but she had only talked about a handful of people out of dozens and dozens. There were a few funny moments but those were actually usually a few seconds or minutes scattered throughout an eight-hour day. Most of the time the work was grueling and monotonous. You couldn’t play around that much because each person was required to get a certain amount of data entered each hour. That meant hour after hour of quiet work. I had so totally misunderstood the nature of that job that, although in retrospect, it wasn’t a bad job for someone my age, I hated every minute I was there.
Throughout the book of Acts we have seen something that is highlighted in this passage. There are times of comfort and blessing that come with our life in Christ but if someone were to tell you only about those things or stress them as the main experience and point of being a Christian, then you would get a completely wrong view of what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the true king of the world and the Messiah. But that is only half of the story. Jesus was the kind of king that had to suffer in order to fulfill his true purpose. In the same way, Christians will find blessing and comfort in Christ, that much is true. But that is only half of the story.
As they continued through the region of Macedonia, reaching Thessalonica, Paul continued his normal pattern of using the local synagogue as his first stop. He would preach the gospel to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles at the synagogue in hopes of forming a core group of disciples that would carry on the work of preaching the gospel and expanding God’s family in that region long after Paul left. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica he specifically preached at the local synagogue for three Sabbaths before apparently moving on within the city itself. Surely Paul stayed there longer than just three weeks, though, as the book of Thessalonians makes clear that Paul worked in Thessolonica to support himself (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) and also received aid several times from the church in Philippi while he was there (Phil. 4:16). That certainly implies a stay of longer than three weeks.
There is no doubt that Paul’s gospel announcement contained the same elements of preaching that he typically used wherever he went, but at this stop Luke emphasized the role and nature of the Messiah. Amongst Jews the early Christians tended to center on Jesus as the Messiah while they focused on Jesus as king among the Gentiles but both aspects of Jesus found a common problem in the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ. A suffering ruler who died at the hands of his enemy didn’t sound like a very impressive Messiah or king. How could it be claimed that this man who came to suffer and die was now the king of the world? It was through the act of his resurrection from the dead. Paul declared in Romans 1:4 that through the resurrection Jesus was declared to the world to be the true son of God thereby making him both Messiah (Christ) and King (Lord).
In this role of suffering, though, was the real challenge of the gospel. It is what made it a stumbling block for the Jews and sheer foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). Those who insisted upon a Messiah or king that lived up to the worldly expectations of power and might would never be able to embrace the truth of the Messiah. It wasn’t just that he unexpectedly suffered but pulled it out in the end by resurrecting. A careful look at the Old Testament Scriptures would demonstrate that Jesus had to suffer because that was always the kind of Messiah that God promised (see passages such as Ps. 2; 16; 22; 110; Isa. 53). It is not only vital that this aspect of Jesus is understood so that we will know him as he truly is but if we don’t understand Jesus’ role as the suffering servant then we will easily mistake ours.
Our world today is full of religious teachers (as was Paul’s) who are more than happy to tell you that God wants nothing but good things for your life because you’re one of his kids. All you have to do, we are told, is to have faith and the blessings will start rolling in. In fact, they’re already prepared for you even if you haven’t received them yet, you just to have to have faith. The problem is that this is so far from the full story and so incomplete that it can only rightly be called a false picture of Christianity. Christians are called to be God’s people that live by the values of the age to come, a time of completeness, sufficiency, and love for others. But to do that in an age of sin, darkness, and fallenness requires sacrifice. We live in an age where the people of the world live for their own best interests which creates large pockets of both surplus and lack, of both comfort and suffering.
The only way for God’s people to bring his economy of sufficiency into such a fallen world is to confront the selfishness and sacrifice for the poor and rejected. Thus, we are called to be people who, like our Messiah, willingly suffer for the benefit of others. We live by the values of the coming age and hope for that age and sacrifice for those that are suffering until that time comes. These are the thoughts echoed by Peter when he declared “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Paul and Silas willingly suffered so that the gospel of the suffering Messiah might be brought to others and when they accepted it and believed, entering into his life, they were willingly taking on that road of purposeful hardship themselves. They were immediately immersed into this life as the Jews riled up some of the local riffraff to stir up trouble and persecute this young church. The young church was getting hammered from both sides. On one side, the Jews didn’t like their claims of Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that the Christians were quite successful in evangelizing the God-fearing Gentiles that had been worshipping at their synagogues (certainly it was appealing to hear that they could be full members of God’s family through faith in his life alone without all of the rigors of keeping the law and becoming Jewish through circumcision). On their other side, the Gentiles did not care for the claims of Jesus as the true king of the world. That sounded like a challenge to Caesar and would be dealt with harshly.
The mobs came to get rid of Paul and Silas but when they could not find them, they turned their wrath onto Jason, a new convert at who’s house Paul and Silas had evidently spent much of their time. It appears that Jason and the others were eventually let go under the condition that Paul and his companions had to move on. This is likely what Paul referred to when he wrote (most likely just a few weeks or months after leaving Thessalonica) “we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way” (1 Thess. 2:17-18). Paul’s sufferings, you see, weren’t just from persecution of non-believers. His sacrifice for the benefit of others didn’t end when he left that town. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
Paul would face the agony of leaving a young church on their own under the care and provision of the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Spirit certainly, but still felt a strong parental bond towards them and cared deeply for them. Paul knew, and he demonstrated in every area of his life and ministry, that being a Christian is not about getting your share of the blessings all of the time but putting the interests of Christ and others ahead of his own (Phil. 2:3-5; 20-21).
Devotional Thought
Do you truly live each day for the benefit of others, being fully willingly to suffer and sacrifice in small ways or larger ways for the interests of Christ and others? What will it take for you to get to a point in your heart where you are fully prepared to do that?
1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
Dig Deeper
When I was about 17 years old I wanted to get a job. I tried out a few places here and there but I didn’t last long at any of them, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to work hard. Then my older sister started to tell me about the place where she was working. It sounded like a blast. Nearly everyday she would come home and tell me of all of the funny things that happened at work and the funny and cool people that she worked with there. I got to thinking after a while that this sounded just like my kind of place. I wanted to “work” someplace where I could have fun and laugh a lot and enjoy the people and not really have to actually work very much. The job was doing data entry on computers so it was basically typing on a computer and I figured how hard could that be. So I went and took a job there. But once I got there I found that my sister had left out some vital details. Some of the people there were fun but she had only talked about a handful of people out of dozens and dozens. There were a few funny moments but those were actually usually a few seconds or minutes scattered throughout an eight-hour day. Most of the time the work was grueling and monotonous. You couldn’t play around that much because each person was required to get a certain amount of data entered each hour. That meant hour after hour of quiet work. I had so totally misunderstood the nature of that job that, although in retrospect, it wasn’t a bad job for someone my age, I hated every minute I was there.
Throughout the book of Acts we have seen something that is highlighted in this passage. There are times of comfort and blessing that come with our life in Christ but if someone were to tell you only about those things or stress them as the main experience and point of being a Christian, then you would get a completely wrong view of what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the true king of the world and the Messiah. But that is only half of the story. Jesus was the kind of king that had to suffer in order to fulfill his true purpose. In the same way, Christians will find blessing and comfort in Christ, that much is true. But that is only half of the story.
As they continued through the region of Macedonia, reaching Thessalonica, Paul continued his normal pattern of using the local synagogue as his first stop. He would preach the gospel to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles at the synagogue in hopes of forming a core group of disciples that would carry on the work of preaching the gospel and expanding God’s family in that region long after Paul left. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica he specifically preached at the local synagogue for three Sabbaths before apparently moving on within the city itself. Surely Paul stayed there longer than just three weeks, though, as the book of Thessalonians makes clear that Paul worked in Thessolonica to support himself (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) and also received aid several times from the church in Philippi while he was there (Phil. 4:16). That certainly implies a stay of longer than three weeks.
There is no doubt that Paul’s gospel announcement contained the same elements of preaching that he typically used wherever he went, but at this stop Luke emphasized the role and nature of the Messiah. Amongst Jews the early Christians tended to center on Jesus as the Messiah while they focused on Jesus as king among the Gentiles but both aspects of Jesus found a common problem in the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ. A suffering ruler who died at the hands of his enemy didn’t sound like a very impressive Messiah or king. How could it be claimed that this man who came to suffer and die was now the king of the world? It was through the act of his resurrection from the dead. Paul declared in Romans 1:4 that through the resurrection Jesus was declared to the world to be the true son of God thereby making him both Messiah (Christ) and King (Lord).
In this role of suffering, though, was the real challenge of the gospel. It is what made it a stumbling block for the Jews and sheer foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). Those who insisted upon a Messiah or king that lived up to the worldly expectations of power and might would never be able to embrace the truth of the Messiah. It wasn’t just that he unexpectedly suffered but pulled it out in the end by resurrecting. A careful look at the Old Testament Scriptures would demonstrate that Jesus had to suffer because that was always the kind of Messiah that God promised (see passages such as Ps. 2; 16; 22; 110; Isa. 53). It is not only vital that this aspect of Jesus is understood so that we will know him as he truly is but if we don’t understand Jesus’ role as the suffering servant then we will easily mistake ours.
Our world today is full of religious teachers (as was Paul’s) who are more than happy to tell you that God wants nothing but good things for your life because you’re one of his kids. All you have to do, we are told, is to have faith and the blessings will start rolling in. In fact, they’re already prepared for you even if you haven’t received them yet, you just to have to have faith. The problem is that this is so far from the full story and so incomplete that it can only rightly be called a false picture of Christianity. Christians are called to be God’s people that live by the values of the age to come, a time of completeness, sufficiency, and love for others. But to do that in an age of sin, darkness, and fallenness requires sacrifice. We live in an age where the people of the world live for their own best interests which creates large pockets of both surplus and lack, of both comfort and suffering.
The only way for God’s people to bring his economy of sufficiency into such a fallen world is to confront the selfishness and sacrifice for the poor and rejected. Thus, we are called to be people who, like our Messiah, willingly suffer for the benefit of others. We live by the values of the coming age and hope for that age and sacrifice for those that are suffering until that time comes. These are the thoughts echoed by Peter when he declared “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Paul and Silas willingly suffered so that the gospel of the suffering Messiah might be brought to others and when they accepted it and believed, entering into his life, they were willingly taking on that road of purposeful hardship themselves. They were immediately immersed into this life as the Jews riled up some of the local riffraff to stir up trouble and persecute this young church. The young church was getting hammered from both sides. On one side, the Jews didn’t like their claims of Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that the Christians were quite successful in evangelizing the God-fearing Gentiles that had been worshipping at their synagogues (certainly it was appealing to hear that they could be full members of God’s family through faith in his life alone without all of the rigors of keeping the law and becoming Jewish through circumcision). On their other side, the Gentiles did not care for the claims of Jesus as the true king of the world. That sounded like a challenge to Caesar and would be dealt with harshly.
The mobs came to get rid of Paul and Silas but when they could not find them, they turned their wrath onto Jason, a new convert at who’s house Paul and Silas had evidently spent much of their time. It appears that Jason and the others were eventually let go under the condition that Paul and his companions had to move on. This is likely what Paul referred to when he wrote (most likely just a few weeks or months after leaving Thessalonica) “we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way” (1 Thess. 2:17-18). Paul’s sufferings, you see, weren’t just from persecution of non-believers. His sacrifice for the benefit of others didn’t end when he left that town. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
Paul would face the agony of leaving a young church on their own under the care and provision of the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Spirit certainly, but still felt a strong parental bond towards them and cared deeply for them. Paul knew, and he demonstrated in every area of his life and ministry, that being a Christian is not about getting your share of the blessings all of the time but putting the interests of Christ and others ahead of his own (Phil. 2:3-5; 20-21).
Devotional Thought
Do you truly live each day for the benefit of others, being fully willingly to suffer and sacrifice in small ways or larger ways for the interests of Christ and others? What will it take for you to get to a point in your heart where you are fully prepared to do that?
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Acts 16:25-40
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I came back home after a long day and was incredibly hungry. My wife was gone for the evening so it was up to me to make supper for my boys and myself. I decided to do something quick and easy and make some pizza. I quickly scooped up all of the ingredients that are necessary for making a good pizza and put them on the counter. First, I grabbed the items that go into making a crust and got that ready because you cannot have pizza without crust. Then I made the sauce and put that on the crust. After that I threw on the cheese and pepperoni while all the while the oven was pre-heating. Once I was done I took the pizza over by the oven, turned on the timer, and then I quickly cleaned up the kitchen. After that I went into my room and sat down on my computer to get some quick work down before the pizza was ready. I didn’t pay too much attention to the time, I just waited for that timer because by now I was starving. After what seemed like forever without the timer ringing, I went into the kitchen to look. The timer had only about 30 seconds left on it, which excited me. That is until I looked to the counter next to the oven and realized that I had never put the pizza into the oven. I had prepared all of the ingredients for a pizza but left out a key component of making a pizza. I had never put it in the oven to cook. I was none too thrilled as I had to reset the timer and begin my wait all over again.
This may seem rather elementary but there are actually many elements that go into “making” a pizza. You generally need to have a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then you need to cook the pizza. If you leave out any of those elements, you come up with something quite different and it just doesn’t work.
One of the key elements in the narrative of the book of Acts is to watch people becoming saved and entering into the kingdom of God, the life of Christ, as the gospel is spread further and further into the world going out from Jerusalem. Although people being saved into God’s family is a key component of Acts, this book is a narrative and not a recipe book so there is no one passage that ever says “here are the exact ingredients that go into someone being saved.” That’s not the point of the narrative. If you read my above narrative which is extremely condensed, you will note that how to make a pizza is not the point of the narrative, but you can go back through and pick out the necessary and important elements. So it is with the book of Acts. If you pick through the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you will be able to pull out the necessary elements of salvation into Christ although there is no such place that ever presents salvation in a formulaic fashion.
Let’s be clear, the analogy between the components of making pizza and the components of salvation is not a perfect one but there is one important point that comes from that analogy that we can apply to salvation. There are definitely different elements, or ingredients, when it comes to salvation in Christ. And just as you have a problem if you try to remove one aspect of making pizza, you have serious problems if you try to remove any of the important elements of salvation.
So what are the elements of salvation that we find in Acts and scattered throughout the New Testament? The first might seem painfully obvious but is important. We must first hear the message. Romans 10:17 says that “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” This leads into the next element which is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and Mark 16:16 says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But one must also repent in order to receive salvation. 2 Peter 3 and Acts 17:10 both say in effect that God wants everyone to come to repentance and Luke 13:5 says “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” One must also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, a thought that is captured succinctly in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” All of this culminates in being baptized into Christ. His victory over death is the subject of the preaching that we hear; his life is the object of our faith; his kingdom is what we repent to; his rule is what we submit to at confession and it is into him that we are baptized. This is why Peter commanded to those who wanted to be saved that they repent and be baptized into his name (Acts 2:38), and to write that the ark and water of Noah “symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (meaning that it is not just a ceremonial and symbolic cleansing but the absolute culmination of our salvation as we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ) (Pet. 3:20-21).
And yet it is very popular today to say that those other elements are necessary but not baptism. Surely that is just a symbol. Surely you don’t have to do that to be saved. You just need that at some point to be obedient. But that would be like claiming that I didn’t need to stick my pizza in the oven in order to complete it. All of the elements of salvation are necessary. At different times the Bible seems to say that one must hear in order to be saved; at other times that we must believe; at other times we must repent; at other times we must confess; and still others say that we must be baptized. If we can take out one element like baptism and make that unnecessary, then can we do the same with any of the other four? Could we not just as easily claim that they are symbolic acts that could be done later? Could we claim that repentance or true belief aren’t necessary up front as long as they come at some point the way some would do with baptism? Could I claim that “belief” isn’t dictated in every single salvation account and must, therefore, be an optional element? Of course not. If you remove one of the ingredients you have a real problem. With pizza, the results vary depending on which ingredient you leave out. With salvation, if you remove any of the ingredients or change them from what they are biblically declared to be then you have something different altogether. When salvation comes, it must come wholly with all of the elements in tact.
As we return to the text, we find that after their beating, Paul and Silas found themselves locked in an extremely uncomfortable jail and unable to sleep. So rather than being stuck in their present circumstances they rejoiced and sang to God. They found their life in Christ to be a greater reality than where they were physically at the moment. The Christian will constantly be called to put the interests of others ahead of their own and this is just one more example (Phil 2:3-5). Paul and Silas would certainly suffer in prison but it would being lasting benefit to the jailer and his household. That is simply the way of life that Christians have been called to as we seek to emulate the life of the one who laid down his life for others.
At that exact moment, a mighty earthquake struck that shook open all the doors and enabled their escape if they so chose. But they had a larger agenda that went beyond their own personal comfort. This earthquake was no coincidence but neither was it sent in order for them to escape. There was no angel there this time telling them to come out (Acts 12:7-10). This earthquake was apparently for their jailer, not for them. When he awoke to realize that all of the prisoners might have escaped he was ready to kill himself rather than wait for it to be done for him (Acts 12:19). When he coupled the spirit and singing of these men (and quite possible the preaching that we might presume they did when they first arrived) with the power of this event but with no attempt to escape, this man was ready. His response was to the point and full of humility. What did he need to do to be saved?
The response was a shorthand one that signified the whole process of salvation. He must believe in the Lord Jesus, an act that presupposes hearing the gospel and which demanded repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ’s life. Even though it might seem that belief is separated and emphasized here that would be a cursory and mistaken assumption. Actually all five elements of genuine salvation are on display in this passage even though they might not be overtly mentioned. First, we can assume that this jailer had listened to them and heard the gospel before the earthquake, otherwise he would have no context for asking to be saved. We are then told that Paul told him that he must believe that Jesus is Lord which would entail him declaring and confessing that. We are then told that he bound up their wounds. This harsh jailer’s repentance is tangible and immediate as he changes from persecutor to comforter. Then we are told that this all culminated in the saving baptism that confirms all of the other elements. And it wasn’t just the jailer. All of the members of his household were brought in to hear the message and they also believed, repented, confessed and were baptized. He further showed his salvation and repentance by having Paul and Silas immediately released.
At this point, we might have expected for Paul and Silas to count their blessings, appreciate that their suffering had brought salvation to many, and to be on their way quickly and quietly. But once again, it appears that they were putting the interests of others ahead of their own. They were both Roman citizens and to be beaten and treated the way that they were without a proper trial was illegal. We simply don’t know why they didn’t bring up the issue earlier but it may have been that they brought it up only when it would be of potential benefit to others. We can only speculate that the Spirit kept them from doing so in order for them to fulfill their mission within that prison. But if they went quietly without saying anything, how might future missionaries or Christians be treated in this region? No, it would be better for Paul and Silas to point out the injustice so that it would at least give pause to the Roman officials in the future.
Rather than feeling like they had run Paul and Silas out of town and would do the same to any more like them in the future, the Romans were troubled upon hearing that these men were actually Roman citizens and not just some random Jews whose rights needed no respecting. They didn’t need any of the trouble that this might bring if it got out so they went out to appease Paul and Silas and make sure that things were at least amicable between them. Their attitude would presumably be quite different towards future missionaries now that they had to at least consider that they might be Roman citizens.
Before leaving town, though, Paul and Silas had one more stop to once again put the interests of others first. They would return to Lydia’s house to encourage the brothers and sisters. Putting others first, after all, isn’t a part-time job. It is not something that Christians do but someone that we become.
Devotional Thought
How can you truly put the interests of those around you first today? It takes time and effort because if we don’t really think about we are likely to spend most of the day doing what is best for us.
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I came back home after a long day and was incredibly hungry. My wife was gone for the evening so it was up to me to make supper for my boys and myself. I decided to do something quick and easy and make some pizza. I quickly scooped up all of the ingredients that are necessary for making a good pizza and put them on the counter. First, I grabbed the items that go into making a crust and got that ready because you cannot have pizza without crust. Then I made the sauce and put that on the crust. After that I threw on the cheese and pepperoni while all the while the oven was pre-heating. Once I was done I took the pizza over by the oven, turned on the timer, and then I quickly cleaned up the kitchen. After that I went into my room and sat down on my computer to get some quick work down before the pizza was ready. I didn’t pay too much attention to the time, I just waited for that timer because by now I was starving. After what seemed like forever without the timer ringing, I went into the kitchen to look. The timer had only about 30 seconds left on it, which excited me. That is until I looked to the counter next to the oven and realized that I had never put the pizza into the oven. I had prepared all of the ingredients for a pizza but left out a key component of making a pizza. I had never put it in the oven to cook. I was none too thrilled as I had to reset the timer and begin my wait all over again.
This may seem rather elementary but there are actually many elements that go into “making” a pizza. You generally need to have a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then you need to cook the pizza. If you leave out any of those elements, you come up with something quite different and it just doesn’t work.
One of the key elements in the narrative of the book of Acts is to watch people becoming saved and entering into the kingdom of God, the life of Christ, as the gospel is spread further and further into the world going out from Jerusalem. Although people being saved into God’s family is a key component of Acts, this book is a narrative and not a recipe book so there is no one passage that ever says “here are the exact ingredients that go into someone being saved.” That’s not the point of the narrative. If you read my above narrative which is extremely condensed, you will note that how to make a pizza is not the point of the narrative, but you can go back through and pick out the necessary and important elements. So it is with the book of Acts. If you pick through the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you will be able to pull out the necessary elements of salvation into Christ although there is no such place that ever presents salvation in a formulaic fashion.
Let’s be clear, the analogy between the components of making pizza and the components of salvation is not a perfect one but there is one important point that comes from that analogy that we can apply to salvation. There are definitely different elements, or ingredients, when it comes to salvation in Christ. And just as you have a problem if you try to remove one aspect of making pizza, you have serious problems if you try to remove any of the important elements of salvation.
So what are the elements of salvation that we find in Acts and scattered throughout the New Testament? The first might seem painfully obvious but is important. We must first hear the message. Romans 10:17 says that “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” This leads into the next element which is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and Mark 16:16 says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But one must also repent in order to receive salvation. 2 Peter 3 and Acts 17:10 both say in effect that God wants everyone to come to repentance and Luke 13:5 says “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” One must also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, a thought that is captured succinctly in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” All of this culminates in being baptized into Christ. His victory over death is the subject of the preaching that we hear; his life is the object of our faith; his kingdom is what we repent to; his rule is what we submit to at confession and it is into him that we are baptized. This is why Peter commanded to those who wanted to be saved that they repent and be baptized into his name (Acts 2:38), and to write that the ark and water of Noah “symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (meaning that it is not just a ceremonial and symbolic cleansing but the absolute culmination of our salvation as we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ) (Pet. 3:20-21).
And yet it is very popular today to say that those other elements are necessary but not baptism. Surely that is just a symbol. Surely you don’t have to do that to be saved. You just need that at some point to be obedient. But that would be like claiming that I didn’t need to stick my pizza in the oven in order to complete it. All of the elements of salvation are necessary. At different times the Bible seems to say that one must hear in order to be saved; at other times that we must believe; at other times we must repent; at other times we must confess; and still others say that we must be baptized. If we can take out one element like baptism and make that unnecessary, then can we do the same with any of the other four? Could we not just as easily claim that they are symbolic acts that could be done later? Could we claim that repentance or true belief aren’t necessary up front as long as they come at some point the way some would do with baptism? Could I claim that “belief” isn’t dictated in every single salvation account and must, therefore, be an optional element? Of course not. If you remove one of the ingredients you have a real problem. With pizza, the results vary depending on which ingredient you leave out. With salvation, if you remove any of the ingredients or change them from what they are biblically declared to be then you have something different altogether. When salvation comes, it must come wholly with all of the elements in tact.
As we return to the text, we find that after their beating, Paul and Silas found themselves locked in an extremely uncomfortable jail and unable to sleep. So rather than being stuck in their present circumstances they rejoiced and sang to God. They found their life in Christ to be a greater reality than where they were physically at the moment. The Christian will constantly be called to put the interests of others ahead of their own and this is just one more example (Phil 2:3-5). Paul and Silas would certainly suffer in prison but it would being lasting benefit to the jailer and his household. That is simply the way of life that Christians have been called to as we seek to emulate the life of the one who laid down his life for others.
At that exact moment, a mighty earthquake struck that shook open all the doors and enabled their escape if they so chose. But they had a larger agenda that went beyond their own personal comfort. This earthquake was no coincidence but neither was it sent in order for them to escape. There was no angel there this time telling them to come out (Acts 12:7-10). This earthquake was apparently for their jailer, not for them. When he awoke to realize that all of the prisoners might have escaped he was ready to kill himself rather than wait for it to be done for him (Acts 12:19). When he coupled the spirit and singing of these men (and quite possible the preaching that we might presume they did when they first arrived) with the power of this event but with no attempt to escape, this man was ready. His response was to the point and full of humility. What did he need to do to be saved?
The response was a shorthand one that signified the whole process of salvation. He must believe in the Lord Jesus, an act that presupposes hearing the gospel and which demanded repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ’s life. Even though it might seem that belief is separated and emphasized here that would be a cursory and mistaken assumption. Actually all five elements of genuine salvation are on display in this passage even though they might not be overtly mentioned. First, we can assume that this jailer had listened to them and heard the gospel before the earthquake, otherwise he would have no context for asking to be saved. We are then told that Paul told him that he must believe that Jesus is Lord which would entail him declaring and confessing that. We are then told that he bound up their wounds. This harsh jailer’s repentance is tangible and immediate as he changes from persecutor to comforter. Then we are told that this all culminated in the saving baptism that confirms all of the other elements. And it wasn’t just the jailer. All of the members of his household were brought in to hear the message and they also believed, repented, confessed and were baptized. He further showed his salvation and repentance by having Paul and Silas immediately released.
At this point, we might have expected for Paul and Silas to count their blessings, appreciate that their suffering had brought salvation to many, and to be on their way quickly and quietly. But once again, it appears that they were putting the interests of others ahead of their own. They were both Roman citizens and to be beaten and treated the way that they were without a proper trial was illegal. We simply don’t know why they didn’t bring up the issue earlier but it may have been that they brought it up only when it would be of potential benefit to others. We can only speculate that the Spirit kept them from doing so in order for them to fulfill their mission within that prison. But if they went quietly without saying anything, how might future missionaries or Christians be treated in this region? No, it would be better for Paul and Silas to point out the injustice so that it would at least give pause to the Roman officials in the future.
Rather than feeling like they had run Paul and Silas out of town and would do the same to any more like them in the future, the Romans were troubled upon hearing that these men were actually Roman citizens and not just some random Jews whose rights needed no respecting. They didn’t need any of the trouble that this might bring if it got out so they went out to appease Paul and Silas and make sure that things were at least amicable between them. Their attitude would presumably be quite different towards future missionaries now that they had to at least consider that they might be Roman citizens.
Before leaving town, though, Paul and Silas had one more stop to once again put the interests of others first. They would return to Lydia’s house to encourage the brothers and sisters. Putting others first, after all, isn’t a part-time job. It is not something that Christians do but someone that we become.
Devotional Thought
How can you truly put the interests of those around you first today? It takes time and effort because if we don’t really think about we are likely to spend most of the day doing what is best for us.
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