Sunday 13th October
Read Psalm 78
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
This Psalm begins, “My people, hear my teachings; listen to the words of my mouth” – always a good thing when coming to the scriptures. What he begins to teach is the history of the people of Israel. He wants to rehearse before his contemporary hearers what God has done for them in the past but not missing out their constant rebellion throughout those times.
The Bible is full of looking back. In many ways it is like the little gospel chorus which says, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done”. He doesn’t just lead them on a trip down memory lane however, he brings them to David whom God chose to shepherd Israel, David who was the ideal King, the one they all looked back to. He was a King Arthur figure to the ancient people of God but we know he was typifying a greater king to come, the King of Kings, Jesus. When we reminisce about the past we always need to come to meditate on the One who has been with us throughout those years.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Acts 10:34-48
The different events of the past days come together for Peter as he realises God’s message to him in his vision on the roof top, together with the vision given to Cornelius to send for Peter and hear his message, must all mean that God is reaching out to the world.
He takes Cornelius’s present knowledge of Jewish history, including the spreading of the news about Jesus, and builds upon it. He testifies to his and the other apostles’ witness about Jesus, his death and resurrection, and then says, obviously playing on Cornelius’s knowledge of the Jewish scriptures, that he was the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead and that all who believe in him receive forgiveness of sins through his name. The Holy Spirit didn’t wait for him to finish speaking but fell upon all who heard the message as they were seen to speak in tongues and praise God just as happened on the day of Pentecost.
After this astounding happening Peter said, “no-one cans stand in the way of these people now being baptised” as new Christian people although that word wasn’t yet used. The ‘hearing’ was the clue to all of this for what Peter said was not just heard as words but received as truth. As Paul says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”
Word spread fast about what had happened at Caesarea and how Peter had had these Gentiles baptised but all were not happy about this. When Peter returned to Jerusalem some of the Jewish believers rounded on him as doing what no Jew should do – enter the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Racism and religious separation were and are hard things to get over.
Peter began to lay out all the events of the past days which led to the Holy Spirit falling on the Gentiles and the happy conclusion was that the opposition abated (at least for the present) amidst the astonishment that “God had granted repentance that leads to life” to the Gentiles. Repentance or Gk, metanoia, means a change of mind and it is at the heart of what happens to a person who hears the Word of God and receives it in faith. Their mind or heart is changed and this was what happened to the family of Cornelius.
This incident was the first mentioned by Luke in his recounting of the early Church but there was more to follow. After the persecution when many believers fled from Jerusalem, some travelling overseas, something extraordinary happened when some of these travellers went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks a great number of whom turned to the Lord and believed.
News spread to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabus to check out what was happening. He was somebody they trusted (“ a good man full of the Holy Spirit” v24) and he rejoiced in what was happening but saw that some sound teaching was needed so that they would remain true to the Lord and he went to get Saul who was now at Tarsus. For a whole year Saul and Barnabus taught the new Church. It shows that mere conversion isn’t enough to make for strong Christian folk but solid teaching such as Saul and Barnabus would engage in is required. We don’t hear in Acts of what was taught but the letters of the New Testament are where to look if we want to find out.
We note in v26 that it was here that the followers were called ‘Christians’ first.
Thursday Acts 11:27- 30
The Church was constituted by the Holy Spirit and the early Church recognised that through the Holy Spirit many gifts were given to the Church. One of those was that of the prophet and here we see one of those so gifted by God who predicted that a severe famine would spread through the entire Roman world. Many contemporary sources indicate that this was true during the time of Emperor Claudius around the time of 44/45 A.D.
On this prophetic information the disciples decided to provide help for thos in Jerusalem and surrounds who were the most hard hit. The Church at Antioch sent help to Jerusalem giving Saul and Barnabus their gifts to be distributed through the elders. There are two tings to pick up from this, one, to note those in the Church whom God gives gifts like this and, two, to be generous in our financial giving to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hard pressed.
When saying things against Christian believers gets approval, it tends to growing persecution just as happened in Jerusalem during the time of Herod. James was put to death by the sword and when Herod saw tha this met with approval by the Jews he moved on to Peter, imprisoning him with a plan to try him after the Passover.
We note the response of the Church. It wasn’t protests in the public squares but earnest prayer ro God for him. This should always be our first recourse when Christians are persecuted. The result was a miraculous release from the prison by angelic intervention in the middle of the night, although Peter thought it was all a dreamy vision until he came to himself down one of the streets that the angel had taken him (v11).
I think I have told of the old Chorus I knew years ago but which is ever true today.
“Got any rivers you think are uncrossable,
Got and mountains you can’t tunnel through?
God specialises in things thought impossible,
He does the things no-one else can do”
Saturday Acts 12:17-19
Yes, even in those days, people of faith didn’t always believe the way God could answer their prayers. Peter, having found his way to the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, where he would guess there would be a gathering of believers, and knocking on the door he had to wait until Rhoda persuaded the occupants that it was indeed Peter outside.
Eventually, when they opened up and saw that it was him, he told them all that had happened much to their amazement but afterwards, sensibly, he left the area. We can sense the excitement in the early Church and it is still the same when we see God answer our prayers even when we are in doubt about his acting. God is good, let us praise him for every small thing and we will be able to give thanks even in astonishment when the big things come along.