This post will be a completion of my previous post on Acts 8:28-40. It would probably be helpful to open it up and read it one time through before reading this post (reading it through won't take more than five minutes, anyways.
"And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah."
Of the many different interesting things about the Ethiopian eunuch, I find it extremely interesting that he was returning from worshiping. This eunuch wasn't a heathen, a pagan, a persecutor of the church, but he was a man who desired to worship the only true God! He wasn't a man who needed to be reminded to go to church on Sunday or to study the Word. God had already placed in his heart a desire to seek Him and to worship Him. And yet he still didn't understand what he read. Many times in our churches and fellowships, we forget that often times, those who are the most lost and are in need of guidance are those who already come to worship! We often assume that just because people come to worship, they know who Jesus is and have a personal relationship with him. This wasn't true for the eunuch, and it certainly isn't true for our churches today, so let's not forget to be reaching out to those already under the roof of the church who may not yet know Jesus.
"And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and join this chariot.' So Philip ran to him..."
This is the first explicit mention of the Spirit that we find in the passage (recall that it was an angel of the Lord that had first told Philip to rise and go). So we can imagine Philip just "chillin" in the desert, walking around, trying to see what God wants him to do, and he sees a chariot and is then prompted by the Spirit to join it. What is Philip's response? Philip runs to the chariot! He doesn't complain, he doesn't ask "God, is this really your will?", he doesn't walk - he runs! We should learn to imitate Philip's eagerness to obey the prompting of the Spirit and run with joy to the tasks that he sets out for us.
[As sort of an aside, I recall from my childhood picture Bibles and Christian videos that supposedly the chariot was actually going full speed and God have Philip the supernatural foot speed (as he had given Elijah) to catch up with a chariot going full speed. I really could be wrong, but this doesn't seem like the most likely scenario to me because of the following verbal exchanges that he has with the eunuch. Philip asks the eunuch if he understands what he's reading, and the eunuch says that he doesn't. It is only after this interaction does the eunuch finally ask Philip to join him in the chariot. To me, it wouldn't really make sense for the eunuch to see a man running full speed next to the chariot without slowing down to converse. But either way, the eagerness of Philip to obey God should be imitated.]
"...and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?'"
Not only is Philip's eagerness to be imitated, but also his method of evangelism. We see in this simple sentence that Philip did two things - he heard and he asked. In Philip's eagerness to run to the chariot, he didn't get on his metaphorical soapbox and start spewing out the Four Spiritual Laws or the bridge diagram, but he heard the Ethiopian. I am probably the most guilty of speaking before listening, but how much easier it was for Philip to minister to the eunuch because he simply listened! He was able to meet the eunuch in his place of confusion and to address the eunuch's needs instead of imposing his own evangelism strategy on him. Philip listened, and that's something that I need to learn to do. After he listened, Philip asked. Last year, I attended MAC (Ministering Across Cultures) for the second time, and one of my biggest takeaways from the training event is how effective asking questions is to opening a person up and understanding a person. By asking the eunuch a basic question, Philip was allowing the eunuch to express his own thoughts and desires, which in turn made it easier for Philip to minister to him. Many times (for me, at least), our ministry tactic is a "speak and answer questions" sort of approach instead of Philip's "hear and ask" approach. There's definitely a place for both kinds of ministry (can you imagine Pastor Chuck simply "hearing and asking" on stage on Sunday morning? That would be horrible!), but Philip's example is a good reminder for me to be more open to gauging someone else's needs.
"And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?' And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him."
To me, this question that the eunuch asks is the central point of the entire passage. In my previous readings of this passage, I had always thought that the person the eunuch needed was Philip to explain the Scripture to him. While this is true, I think that God is pointing us to something much deeper than that - "the inward illumination of the Spirit of God [is] necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word. [WCF]" It is the Holy Spirit, not Philip, who is ultimately the guide of the Ethiopian! The easy takeaway from this passage that we've been taught since we were children is that we need to be like Philip and explain the Bible to those who don't understand it. We fail to realize that we ourselves cannot understand the Scripture without the guidance of the Holy Spirit! It is only through God that we ourselves can understand the Word of God and have any hope of explaining it to anyone else!
This post is really sufficiently long, so I'm just going to skip a bit of the passage and get to a few last thoughts I had on the passage.
"Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus."
This "opened his mouth" phrase seems to be used only one other time in this book, and that is in Acts 10:34, when Peter is preaching to the centurion's family. To me, it is a reminder that when we speak, we are merely using our mouths as an instrument of God, and it is really the "Spirit of our Father speaking through [us]". I may be imagining things, but I also see somewhat of a parallel between this passage and Luke 24, where Jesus explains to the two clueless fellows how all of Scripture is really about him. Obviously, Luke and Acts are both written by Luke, and it's cool to see how Luke comes back to a man explaining how all of Scripture is about Jesus.
"And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing."
I'm not sure if you've realized this, but Philip was straight up teleported away. The passage says that "Philip found himself at Azotus." Imagine that. Philip was in the water baptizing the eunuch and an instant later, was in a random town. How strange that must have been! And the eunuch also just got the most awesome baptism in the entire world. Again, this might be over-speculation, but I really think that the eunuch probably got a small feeling of the Spirit of the Lord carrying him out of the water. All of us who've been dunked know that when you're brought down into the water, you need the pastor to bring you back up, because there's really no other way you can get up out of the water from a prostrate position. Now, if Philip was teleported away as they came up out of the water, who would be there to help the eunuch completely up? I very well could be wrong, but to me, the passage seems to imply that the eunuch never saw Philip once he got out of the water, and it isn't a wild possibility to me that it was the Spirit Himself who helped the eunuch onto his feet after the baptism. That would be an awesome baptism - being baptized by God himself! But of course, that's all speculation.
To conclude this post, I really feel like this understanding that the Spirit is the guide is the central theme of the passage. The Spirit is the one who guides Philip to the chariot, the Spirit is the one who gives both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch understanding of the Scripture, and it is the Spirit who again leads both the eunuch and Philip on their separate paths after their encounter. As Christians, we should allow the Spirit to guide us in all things - be it direction of life or our Scripture readings - and to obey quickly and eagerly when He calls.
Showing posts with label Acts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acts. Show all posts
Monday, February 27, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Acts 8 - Rise and Go
This post, along with the following posts is on Acts 8:26-40, which is the familiar story of Philip and the Ethiopian. (I had wanted to fit it all into one post, but I think it would just be extremely long and unfocused, so this post is just going to be on verses 26 and 27.)
Acts 8:26-27 - "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert place. And he rose and went."
I. "Rise and go"
The first thing that caught my eye was the word "rise". Why did the angel say that? Was Philip sleeping or something? I doubt it. Was he just lying down? We have no indication of that. We know from earlier in the chapter that Philip isn't just lounging around doing nothing while all the other disciples are hard at work, so it probably isn't the angel telling him to get off his tush and go do something. I don't know any Greek, so I don't really know what the significance or "rise" is, but we it isn't a completely unfamiliar phrase. We see in Jonah that God tells him "Arise, and go" and we actually see this phrase is used quite often in the Bible.
However, I have kind of a hunch about this whole "rise" thing. I've sort of noticed it used a LOT in my reading of Acts, and while it may just be a commonly used word, I think that Luke uses it intentionally. You Bible teachers out there (Pastor Bob) can correct me on this later, but my guess is that all of this business with rising has to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After all, the book of Acts is a record of the amazing things that happen in the church because of the resurrection of Christ . We can just take a look at Luke's emphasis on "rising" in the book of Acts so far.
Jesus rose up to heaven.
Acts 1:9 - "And when [Jesus]had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
Peter rose up to tell of God raising Jesus from the dead.
Acts 1:15 - "In those days Peter stood up among the brothers" and then gave a sweet speech about Jesus.
Acts 2:23 - "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:32 - "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses."
A lame man rises up to walk, and the disciples speak of Jesus raised up to explain the miracle.
Acts 3:6 - "But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
Acts 3:15 - "and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses."
The holiness and power of God is revealed.
Acts 5:5-6 - "When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. And young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him."
If Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is doomed to fail.
Acts 5:17 - "But the high priest rose up, filled with jealousy."
Acts 5:36-39 - "...Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody...He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up..He too perished and all who followed him were scattered...if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"
Stephen sees Jesus rising from his seat at the right hand of God to receive him
Acts 7:55 - "But [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Ananias rose to pray over Saul, who then rose and was baptized.
Acts 9:11 - "Rise and go to the street called Straight..."
Acts 9:17 - "And immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
Peter was commanded to rise and eat what he had thought unclean.
Acts 10:13-14 - "And there came a voice to him: 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.'"
As I mentioned before, God's command to rise up and do stuff isn't rare in the Bible, but in the book of Acts, everything is different, because Jesus has risen from the dead! We can only "rise and go" because Jesus first did it! Jesus rose from his seat in heaven and came down into the world. He rose from the dead, then ascended back into heaven. The power of the resurrection is the power by which all the disciples did their miracles and this is the power by which we do anything that pleases God. This is the power by which we rise from the dead - the power by which we are saved. This is the power by which Jesus takes the hand of our heart and says "Child, arise", like he did for the little girl in Luke 8. This resurrection power is also the power by which we go, the power through which we can spread the gospel! As one of my favorite worship songs says, "The same power that conquered the grave lives in me!"
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
II. This is a desert place.
It's very interesting that Luke decided to add this detail here. I think that Luke is indicating that the place where the angel told him to go wasn't an attractive place. It wasn't somewhere you would visit on vacation. There's also no guarantee that there would be people there to minister to! In essence, the angel told Philip to go to a remote location with no people, no food or water, but a lot of heat and discomfort. We know that Philip had already been doing some great ministry, but God called him somewhere that just didn't seem like it had much ministry potential! Sometimes God calls us to uncomfortable or seemingly strange places that causes us to doubt God's wisdom. "God, are you really calling me here? I think you may be misappropriating your resources, God. In case you didn't notice, I can cast out demons and all that cool stuff, and people really seem to like me, so I think it would be most wise if you put me somewhere with a lot of people and somewhere that is a little more comfortable." We lack the faith and the trust in God to go and minister in places that seem spiritually desolate. We have unspoken, subconscious barriers that we set up, marking the boundaries to our possible obedience to God. We allow our fleshly desires to limit how we serve God.
III. And he rose and went.
If only this was our attitude to the commands of God! If only we rise and go to do all that he commands us to do, even if it seems hard and even if we don't really want to! It's interesting that in chapters 8, 9, and 10, God commands three different people to rise and go, and Philip is the only one who did so immediately. Ananias initially didn't want to minister to Saul, and Peter didn't want to eat the unclean food, but Philip immediately rose and went, despite having to probably walk to the desert without a real knowledge of why God wanted him there.
As a kid, my mom always got frustrated at me for not doing what she told me the first time she told it to me. If she told me to do something like set the table or clean my room, I would always tell her "later, later, later" until she would finally just explode and yell at me after asking me nicely so many times. The moral of the story is (as is always the moral of any story of mine): Don't be like Caleb. "Obey the first time," as my mother used to say (or yell).
So let's obey God when he calls. Let's obey his call to rise out of our sin and out of our shame. Let's obey his call to rise out of self-absorption and our self-centeredness. And let's obey God's command to go - his command to go into all nations and make disciples. Let's obey God's command to go and care for the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. Let's obey when God calls us to go places, whether geographically or figuratively, that are undesirable, unappealing, and uncomfortable. Let's obey God when He calls us to go, even if not every last detail of his plan has been revealed to us.
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
Acts 8:26-27 - "Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert place. And he rose and went."
I. "Rise and go"
The first thing that caught my eye was the word "rise". Why did the angel say that? Was Philip sleeping or something? I doubt it. Was he just lying down? We have no indication of that. We know from earlier in the chapter that Philip isn't just lounging around doing nothing while all the other disciples are hard at work, so it probably isn't the angel telling him to get off his tush and go do something. I don't know any Greek, so I don't really know what the significance or "rise" is, but we it isn't a completely unfamiliar phrase. We see in Jonah that God tells him "Arise, and go" and we actually see this phrase is used quite often in the Bible.
However, I have kind of a hunch about this whole "rise" thing. I've sort of noticed it used a LOT in my reading of Acts, and while it may just be a commonly used word, I think that Luke uses it intentionally. You Bible teachers out there (Pastor Bob) can correct me on this later, but my guess is that all of this business with rising has to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After all, the book of Acts is a record of the amazing things that happen in the church because of the resurrection of Christ . We can just take a look at Luke's emphasis on "rising" in the book of Acts so far.
Jesus rose up to heaven.
Acts 1:9 - "And when [Jesus]had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."
Peter rose up to tell of God raising Jesus from the dead.
Acts 1:15 - "In those days Peter stood up among the brothers" and then gave a sweet speech about Jesus.
Acts 2:23 - "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:32 - "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses."
A lame man rises up to walk, and the disciples speak of Jesus raised up to explain the miracle.
Acts 3:6 - "But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
Acts 3:15 - "and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses."
The holiness and power of God is revealed.
Acts 5:5-6 - "When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. And young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him."
If Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is doomed to fail.
Acts 5:17 - "But the high priest rose up, filled with jealousy."
Acts 5:36-39 - "...Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody...He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up..He too perished and all who followed him were scattered...if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!"
Stephen sees Jesus rising from his seat at the right hand of God to receive him
Acts 7:55 - "But [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Ananias rose to pray over Saul, who then rose and was baptized.
Acts 9:11 - "Rise and go to the street called Straight..."
Acts 9:17 - "And immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
Peter was commanded to rise and eat what he had thought unclean.
Acts 10:13-14 - "And there came a voice to him: 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.'"
As I mentioned before, God's command to rise up and do stuff isn't rare in the Bible, but in the book of Acts, everything is different, because Jesus has risen from the dead! We can only "rise and go" because Jesus first did it! Jesus rose from his seat in heaven and came down into the world. He rose from the dead, then ascended back into heaven. The power of the resurrection is the power by which all the disciples did their miracles and this is the power by which we do anything that pleases God. This is the power by which we rise from the dead - the power by which we are saved. This is the power by which Jesus takes the hand of our heart and says "Child, arise", like he did for the little girl in Luke 8. This resurrection power is also the power by which we go, the power through which we can spread the gospel! As one of my favorite worship songs says, "The same power that conquered the grave lives in me!"
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
II. This is a desert place.
It's very interesting that Luke decided to add this detail here. I think that Luke is indicating that the place where the angel told him to go wasn't an attractive place. It wasn't somewhere you would visit on vacation. There's also no guarantee that there would be people there to minister to! In essence, the angel told Philip to go to a remote location with no people, no food or water, but a lot of heat and discomfort. We know that Philip had already been doing some great ministry, but God called him somewhere that just didn't seem like it had much ministry potential! Sometimes God calls us to uncomfortable or seemingly strange places that causes us to doubt God's wisdom. "God, are you really calling me here? I think you may be misappropriating your resources, God. In case you didn't notice, I can cast out demons and all that cool stuff, and people really seem to like me, so I think it would be most wise if you put me somewhere with a lot of people and somewhere that is a little more comfortable." We lack the faith and the trust in God to go and minister in places that seem spiritually desolate. We have unspoken, subconscious barriers that we set up, marking the boundaries to our possible obedience to God. We allow our fleshly desires to limit how we serve God.
III. And he rose and went.
If only this was our attitude to the commands of God! If only we rise and go to do all that he commands us to do, even if it seems hard and even if we don't really want to! It's interesting that in chapters 8, 9, and 10, God commands three different people to rise and go, and Philip is the only one who did so immediately. Ananias initially didn't want to minister to Saul, and Peter didn't want to eat the unclean food, but Philip immediately rose and went, despite having to probably walk to the desert without a real knowledge of why God wanted him there.
As a kid, my mom always got frustrated at me for not doing what she told me the first time she told it to me. If she told me to do something like set the table or clean my room, I would always tell her "later, later, later" until she would finally just explode and yell at me after asking me nicely so many times. The moral of the story is (as is always the moral of any story of mine): Don't be like Caleb. "Obey the first time," as my mother used to say (or yell).
So let's obey God when he calls. Let's obey his call to rise out of our sin and out of our shame. Let's obey his call to rise out of self-absorption and our self-centeredness. And let's obey God's command to go - his command to go into all nations and make disciples. Let's obey God's command to go and care for the sick, the poor, and the oppressed. Let's obey when God calls us to go places, whether geographically or figuratively, that are undesirable, unappealing, and uncomfortable. Let's obey God when He calls us to go, even if not every last detail of his plan has been revealed to us.
Christians, rise and go, for your Christ is risen!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Acts 7 - We the Pharisees
Recently, I've been reading Acts, and God has really shown me a lot in it, so I'm just going to try and share a little of what I get out of the passages that I read. As sort of a disclaimer, I'm a noob. I'm no theologian, and I don't read the passage in the original Greek or anything super-intellectual like that, so my insights may be a little more contrived and may not actually completely and accurately reflect the author's intent, but I still hope you enjoy it.
The Build-up
I read Acts 7 as part of my quiet time last Friday. As you can figure out just by flipping your Bible open to Acts 7 (or being lazy and clicking this link), it's Stephen's last speech to the Jews who seized him before he was martyred. Now I didn't actually get to finish the entire chapter, so I finished it on Saturday as part of my quiet time, when Saturday, when Nathan, Jonny, and Cory came to visit. I had been really frustrated with not being able to finish the chapter, as Stephen's speech just sort of builds and builds, as he goes through Israel's history of disobedience and God's grace through it all. Halfway through we're all must be thinking "Okay Stephen...get to the point." The Jews that seized him, who had falsely accused him of blaspheming against Moses, must have been thinking "Yeah, Stephen. We know our history, we've all heard this before...". Stephen spends a little bit of time talking about some of the patriarchs, but actually spends more than half of his speech talking about Moses, who he was accused of blaspheming against. I don't actually think that there was anything that Stephen said that any of the Jews would have objected to. Until BAM. HE NAILS THEM.
The Pwnage
Out of NOWHERE Stephen just demolishes them. Stephen's just completely smashes them to pieces. For some reason, his speech kind of reminded me of Denzel's famous speech at the end of training day (video here), where he just lays entire sentences of insults and expletives at the people around him. Completely different situation, I know, but it just reminded me of it. In the buildup, you can almost imagine the Jew's thinking, "I hate this guy for talking about Jesus!!!!....oh okay...he's talking about Joseph...wow this guy knows his history...yay Moses! I love Moses...At least he's not talking about Jesus....OH WTF. WHAT DID HE JUST SAY. NO HE DI'INT. LET'S KILL THIS FOO." What exactly did Stephen say that so enraged them, that they "ground their teeth at him", which I guess is some sort of expression of hatred? [As a sidenote, I grind my teeth when I sleep (as Cory found out this weekend), so if you ever hear me grinding my teeth at you, please disregard it as my sleeping and not me wanting to kill you.] Let's take a look at what Stephen said.
I want to concentrate on verse 51: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit."
"You stiff-necked people"
I'm no expert in stiff-necked-ness, but I assume that Stephen is talking about being stubborn and unwilling to change, as he will elaborate further on. Doing a quick Biblegateway search, we see that this isn't the only time that the phrase has been used in the Bible, as God had used it to describe Israel, which is exactly what Stephen was trying to point out in his speech.
"uncircumcised in heart and ears"
As you may have already guessed, this is the phrase that really caught my eye. THIS is probably what cut most deeply at the hearts of the Jews (pun intended). We know that of all that these uber-religious Jews were proud of, they were the most proud of their circumcision. They loved that they were Jews. They looked down on all with foreskins and really flaunted their circumcision and Jew-ness around. To call a Jew, especially a "religious" Jew, uncircumcised? That was the ultimate insult! Stephen was not only attacking their identity as Jews, but because the circumcision was a sign of the Jews' covenant with God, he was attacking their faith and their religiosity. He was correctly diagnosing the spiritual deadness of their hearts. But man. What a harsh rebuking.
"you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers do, so do you."
This is when all of a sudden the conviction fell on me like a bag of bricks (who carries bricks in bags, anyways?). I was all like "Haha! You Pharisees just got BURNED by Stephen so hard!", but then I realized that this passage...the Pharisees...that's ME. This verse is a great, memorable summarization of the doctrine of sin - that apart from the saving grace of God, we ALL cannot help but resist the Holy Spirit. We ALL are stiff-necked, stuck in our sin, with no hope for true circumcision of the heart. This is the problem of my heart - I cannot help but sin and resist the Holy Spirit. Not only is this my problem, this is the problem of all of creation and all of man. This has been the problem for generations and generations and ages and ages. There is none that can self-determine to not resist the Holy Spirit.
When we read stories of the Pharisees in the Bible, we almost always vilify them without realizing that we are actually just like them, if not worse! Tim Keller said in one of his sermons, "How often do we read the passage on the Pharisee's prayer and the tax collector's prayer and think to ourselves 'Thank God I'm not like that Pharisee?'" I am that guy. I'm the modern-day Pharisee who scoffs at the Pharisees. I'm the pot who called the kettle black (not that there's anything wrong with being black, of course. I lovingly accept and enjoy the diversity of kettles of all colors). Apart from God, I hate Him. And I hate people that love Him. I cannot help but sin. I have no ability to please God. To top it all off, I have no ability to not hate God, even if I tried, which I would never do, because I hate God so much. Reading this passage with an understanding that I am actually the Jew - who is absolutely dead in sin and pride and hate having my sins pointed - really opens up my eyes.
But obviously, this isn't the end of the story. There is good news, and that is that God can overcome our resisting of him, which he accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross, that we can share in the communion with God as Stephen experienced, and one day we will meet him in heaven and give him a hug and tell him "Thanks for Acts 7. That was a pretty sweet speech."
The death of Stephen
So what ultimately made the Jews so mad that they killed him? Stephen said he saw Jesus. He said he saw God. How blessed are we that we have that same privilege to know the true, living God. In his entire speech, Stephen actually barely mentioned Jesus. He alluded to Jesus when he said that their ancestors killed the prophets we predicted the coming of "the Righteous One." This was only the second time. The Jews couldn't believe their ears, that Stephen was claiming that he could see God, and that he could see the Messiah. While I highly doubt anyone reading this post has actually seen God, we have the unthinkable opportunity to know Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:9, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father". It's amazing how we can claim to know the Messiah personally and the Creator God of heaven and earth, the very things that Stephen died for.
God, I am a sinner. I cannot help but resist you. Thank you for overcoming my resistance and giving me your salvation. Reveal to me the places in my life where I'm still resisting you, and help me give those things over to you.
The Build-up
I read Acts 7 as part of my quiet time last Friday. As you can figure out just by flipping your Bible open to Acts 7 (or being lazy and clicking this link), it's Stephen's last speech to the Jews who seized him before he was martyred. Now I didn't actually get to finish the entire chapter, so I finished it on Saturday as part of my quiet time, when Saturday, when Nathan, Jonny, and Cory came to visit. I had been really frustrated with not being able to finish the chapter, as Stephen's speech just sort of builds and builds, as he goes through Israel's history of disobedience and God's grace through it all. Halfway through we're all must be thinking "Okay Stephen...get to the point." The Jews that seized him, who had falsely accused him of blaspheming against Moses, must have been thinking "Yeah, Stephen. We know our history, we've all heard this before...". Stephen spends a little bit of time talking about some of the patriarchs, but actually spends more than half of his speech talking about Moses, who he was accused of blaspheming against. I don't actually think that there was anything that Stephen said that any of the Jews would have objected to. Until BAM. HE NAILS THEM.
The Pwnage
Out of NOWHERE Stephen just demolishes them. Stephen's just completely smashes them to pieces. For some reason, his speech kind of reminded me of Denzel's famous speech at the end of training day (video here), where he just lays entire sentences of insults and expletives at the people around him. Completely different situation, I know, but it just reminded me of it. In the buildup, you can almost imagine the Jew's thinking, "I hate this guy for talking about Jesus!!!!....oh okay...he's talking about Joseph...wow this guy knows his history...yay Moses! I love Moses...At least he's not talking about Jesus....OH WTF. WHAT DID HE JUST SAY. NO HE DI'INT. LET'S KILL THIS FOO." What exactly did Stephen say that so enraged them, that they "ground their teeth at him", which I guess is some sort of expression of hatred? [As a sidenote, I grind my teeth when I sleep (as Cory found out this weekend), so if you ever hear me grinding my teeth at you, please disregard it as my sleeping and not me wanting to kill you.] Let's take a look at what Stephen said.
I want to concentrate on verse 51: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit."
"You stiff-necked people"
I'm no expert in stiff-necked-ness, but I assume that Stephen is talking about being stubborn and unwilling to change, as he will elaborate further on. Doing a quick Biblegateway search, we see that this isn't the only time that the phrase has been used in the Bible, as God had used it to describe Israel, which is exactly what Stephen was trying to point out in his speech.
"uncircumcised in heart and ears"
As you may have already guessed, this is the phrase that really caught my eye. THIS is probably what cut most deeply at the hearts of the Jews (pun intended). We know that of all that these uber-religious Jews were proud of, they were the most proud of their circumcision. They loved that they were Jews. They looked down on all with foreskins and really flaunted their circumcision and Jew-ness around. To call a Jew, especially a "religious" Jew, uncircumcised? That was the ultimate insult! Stephen was not only attacking their identity as Jews, but because the circumcision was a sign of the Jews' covenant with God, he was attacking their faith and their religiosity. He was correctly diagnosing the spiritual deadness of their hearts. But man. What a harsh rebuking.
"you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers do, so do you."
This is when all of a sudden the conviction fell on me like a bag of bricks (who carries bricks in bags, anyways?). I was all like "Haha! You Pharisees just got BURNED by Stephen so hard!", but then I realized that this passage...the Pharisees...that's ME. This verse is a great, memorable summarization of the doctrine of sin - that apart from the saving grace of God, we ALL cannot help but resist the Holy Spirit. We ALL are stiff-necked, stuck in our sin, with no hope for true circumcision of the heart. This is the problem of my heart - I cannot help but sin and resist the Holy Spirit. Not only is this my problem, this is the problem of all of creation and all of man. This has been the problem for generations and generations and ages and ages. There is none that can self-determine to not resist the Holy Spirit.
When we read stories of the Pharisees in the Bible, we almost always vilify them without realizing that we are actually just like them, if not worse! Tim Keller said in one of his sermons, "How often do we read the passage on the Pharisee's prayer and the tax collector's prayer and think to ourselves 'Thank God I'm not like that Pharisee?'" I am that guy. I'm the modern-day Pharisee who scoffs at the Pharisees. I'm the pot who called the kettle black (not that there's anything wrong with being black, of course. I lovingly accept and enjoy the diversity of kettles of all colors). Apart from God, I hate Him. And I hate people that love Him. I cannot help but sin. I have no ability to please God. To top it all off, I have no ability to not hate God, even if I tried, which I would never do, because I hate God so much. Reading this passage with an understanding that I am actually the Jew - who is absolutely dead in sin and pride and hate having my sins pointed - really opens up my eyes.
But obviously, this isn't the end of the story. There is good news, and that is that God can overcome our resisting of him, which he accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross, that we can share in the communion with God as Stephen experienced, and one day we will meet him in heaven and give him a hug and tell him "Thanks for Acts 7. That was a pretty sweet speech."
The death of Stephen
So what ultimately made the Jews so mad that they killed him? Stephen said he saw Jesus. He said he saw God. How blessed are we that we have that same privilege to know the true, living God. In his entire speech, Stephen actually barely mentioned Jesus. He alluded to Jesus when he said that their ancestors killed the prophets we predicted the coming of "the Righteous One." This was only the second time. The Jews couldn't believe their ears, that Stephen was claiming that he could see God, and that he could see the Messiah. While I highly doubt anyone reading this post has actually seen God, we have the unthinkable opportunity to know Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:9, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father". It's amazing how we can claim to know the Messiah personally and the Creator God of heaven and earth, the very things that Stephen died for.
God, I am a sinner. I cannot help but resist you. Thank you for overcoming my resistance and giving me your salvation. Reveal to me the places in my life where I'm still resisting you, and help me give those things over to you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)