Sunday 27th October

Read Psalm 80

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 is a sad Psalm in which the Psalmist realises the anger of God against the Israelites and also the derision of their neighbours.  It starts with a prayer to God to restore them – “Make your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved”.   It is a request repeated in v7 and again in the last verse.  The body of the Psalm speaks of God’s part in choosing the nation, bringing it from Egypt and planting it in the land.  He asks God why He has done this, why He has let this happen. Then in a curious Messianic reference he says “Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself”, after which he says we will be revived.

When we feel God’s hand heavy against us it is to Christ we have to point.  He suffers with us but in his resurrection we also are raised and feel the face of God shine on us.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.

Monday Acts 14:8-15

In Lystra one of Paul’s miracles is mentioned in the healing of a man born lame.  It comes similar to Peter’s healing of the man at the Gate Beautiful in the Temple and reminiscent of Jesus healing of the man lowered through the roof.  Healings such as this are not written about regularly nor should we think of them as being part of the daily life of the church.  Jesus told his listeners in Luke 4:26,27 that there were many widows in Israel at the time but Elijah was only sent to one and many lepers but only one was healed, neither being Israelites.  God does things for us in miraculous ways but we are not to expect them whenever we want.  They are given as signs of the power and sovereignty of God.  The interesting thing is the concentration of Paul on the man and him vice-versa.  Healing is never done in passing, merely as a side issue, but it is powerfully important.

The result of the healing of the man was not what the apostles expected because the crowd cried out in their Lycaonian language which the apostles didn’t recognise at first “the gods have come down to us in human form”, thinking Barnabus was Zeus and Paul Hermes.  When the apostles grasped what was going on they immediately put a stop to it saying, “we too are only human, like you” (v15)

Whatever gifts we have within the church we must always remember that we are not one above our fellows, even were we to have apostolic powers operative through our faith we would still be only human.

Tuesday Acts 14:15-20

Having stopped the inhabitants treating them as gods, Paul wanted to correct their misinterpretation of them.  He had probably preached that God had sent his Son into the world but they had taken God as Zeus and Hermes, who was Zeus’ messenger, being Barnabus and Paul, with Paul, who was the main speaker, as Hermes, carrying a message from Barnabus (Zeus).

People with no background in Judeo/Christian knowledge can very easily have convoluted religious ideas. When Paul set about putting things right he started telling them that they were brining good news and that they needed to turn away from these worthless ideas about Greek gods for the Living God – i.e. the only one – was the creator of the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in them.  He then told them that in the past God had let all nations go their own way although he hadn’t left them clueless because his kindness had provided them with rain, food and joy.  Even with this he found it difficult to hold them back from sacrificing to himself and Barnabus.

Jews from Antioch and Iconium came, however, and won the crowd over, encouraging them to  stone the apostle who just escaped with his life and with the help of some believers travelled to Derbe the next day.  It is amazing how easily people can be made to hate straightforward Christian teaching even in our own country today.

Wednesday Acts 14:21-28

Derbe is only mentioned in passing but Luke says they preached the gospel and won a large number of disciples before returning through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.  We should notice that the apostles weren’t just telling people to believe something but to be disciples.  A disciple is an apprentice, one who is learning from and copying his master and that is what all of us who take the name Christian should be doing day by day.  On their return journeys through the cities that had been in they “strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to remain true to the faith (v22) adding that, “we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”.

If we were to ask a baby if was easy being born, I’m sure they would reply in the negative but wonderful life only came afterwards.  Hardship starts in personal discipline, in ceasing to live and behave as the world around does, but they can also come through the word’s resistance to our kind of life.

Elders or leaders were appointed in each church before returning to Antioch in Syria which was the place that they had been sent out from originally.

Thursday Acts 15:1-4

This chapter is an important one in the history of the early church.  Antioch became a major sending church and when Paul and Barnabus returned from their missionary journey they came with exciting news of large numbers of Gentile as well as Jewish new believers.  The word would obviously cause a buzz and that news reached Jerusalem.  The opening of the chapter tells us that certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and began to say that any new believers had to be circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses.  In other words no-on could be a bona-fide member of the church unless they had also bought into the Jewish religion by being circumcised.

Paul and Barnabus would have none of this – they already knew that the Spirit had already been givn to Gentile believers – and there was a sharp dispute.  The outcome was that the Antioch church delegated  Paul and Barnabus to go to Jerusalem to sort the matter out with the apostles and elders there.  This issue has a broader perspective in that we can have a view that when people are converted they must become like us.  In a certain extent this is true in issues of morality but not in ways of culture and habit.  As they travelled to Jerusalem through Phoenicia and Samaria the churches in these places were glad in what they heard and this rejoicing would be known in Jerusalem.

Friday Acts 15:4-18

When they got to Jerusalem they were welcomed by the apostles and elders but some of the believers who belonged to the party of the pharisees wanted to have all Gentiles who believed circumcised and become keepers of the law.  The apostles and elders met to discuss this and after much discussion Peter rose and gave an impassioned speech emphasising the situation that had happened when he had preached to Cornelius (among others) and they had believed and received the Holy Spirit.  That showed that God, who knew the heart, showed that he accepted them and therefore didn’t discriminate between them and those who were Jews.

His closing statement has been a watchword ever since, that it was through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that both they and we, his fellow Jews, were saved.  Paul and Barnabus gave testimony to what had happened on their missionary journey among the Gentiles and after this James spoke up gathering the different testimonies to a close.

Saturday Acts 15:13-21

James joins in to back up what Paul and Barnabus are arguing for and quotes roughly from the prophet Amos in the Old Testament to show that this is no new thing but expected back in the days of the prophets.  It is always important to look at scripture whenever something new comes along seeking to be accepted in the Church, something that has more than once be ignored.

James says that they should not put obstacles in the way of Gentiles who are turning to God and so the idea that all should be circumcised and take on the burden of the Jewish law is scrapped, and a letter is to be sent to all the churches informing them of this decision from what came to be known as the Jerusalem council.

Three things were added though, two of which particularly had a concern for the Jewish people and relations with the mixed communities of the early church.  Care was expected of the Gentiles Christinas not to tramp on the sensibilities of the Jewish culture with regard to their food laws [Paul would later deal with this in his first letter to the Corinthians, to the Galatians and to the Romans].  The third matter however stands for all time for it was to do with the ten commandments as it instructed on no sexual immorality to be in the churches.