What is the Law? (Acts Edition)

Today we’re going to revisit a subject we discussed last summer. However, I think it’s good to reiterate on this now as we have new faces in Sunday School but also we’re reaching a point in Acts where it is important to remind ourselves about some important fundamentals. So this week we’re going to discuss what people in the Bible mean when they’re talking about the Law.

What is the “Law?” This is something referenced all over the place in the Bible—not just the Old Testament, but Jesus is constantly talking about the Law—and we’re going to talk about Jesus and his relationship to the Law next week. The apostles also argued constantly about the law, who should obey it, who shouldn’t. Jewish people today even have long discussions and disagreements about to what extent they are required to follow the law: which one of the big divisions between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed Jews. So this discussion of “What is the Law and who must follow it” is something that has been debated since Moses all the way until today. For over three thousand years people have been discussing this very topic.

So today we’re going to talk about it. Obviously we can’t get through all the nuances in an hour, but I want to give you guys a decent understanding of what people in Jesus time would have understood the law as.

Please go get your Bibles.

Before we open to anything who can remind us what God’s covenant with Abraham is? [Let them answer.]

That’s right, God made a covenant with Abraham to be his God and the God of his people and to make him the father of many people. At this point we’ve seen how Abraham’s descendants have become many people. You have Ishmael whose descendants formed their own people group. You have Esau, whose descendants became the Edomites. We didn’t study this—but after Sarah died, Abraham remarried and had more children who went on to become different people’s. Also now we have the Israelites who are descended from Jacob, Abraham’s grandson.

God made the initial covenant with Abraham—to be his God—and then renewed it with Isaac, Abraham’s son, and then Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. After all those years in Egypt—over four hundred—it’s possible the Israelites may have worried that the covenant no longer held. But obviously, God went to great lengths and performed many miraculous acts to free them from Egypt. In case that wasn’t enough, God also re-established the covenant in words. Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 19:3-6.

3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”

God reiterates that the Israelites are his people—that they are the children of the covenant. And that he will make them a “priestly kingdom,” they are to be the example of God in the world. For their end of the deal? They just have to obey his voice and keep the covenant. So the men must be circumcised, and all of them must listen to God.

For Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God basically had a one-on-one relationship with them. God could tell them what they should do or what they were doing wrong, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob needed to listen to that voice. But now we’re talking about thousands of Israelites. God could talk to each of them individually, he certainly has that power, but instead he is choosing to make himself known through a single prophet—in this case Moses. That’s a set up we’re going to see go on for a while in the history of Israel. There is one single prophet who talks to God and relays God’s thoughts to the people. This prophet is then the leader of the people—in both a religious and government sense. Israel is the definition of a theocracy at this time—it is both a nation and a religion. The idea of separation of church and state is completely foreign to them.

To underscore this, we have the Law. God gives Moses Laws which are both religious and civil laws. These are the laws of the nation of Israel. And it covers everything from their relationship with God, to what do you do if an animal you own accidentally hurts another person, to what sort of crimes merit the death penalty. So for the Israelites to keep the covenant, in addition to circumcision they must obey the law.

The initial revelation of the law is also the most famous: The ten commandments. Let’s turn to Exodus 20:1-17.

20 Then God spoke all these words:

2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 You shall not murder.

14 You shall not commit adultery.

15 You shall not steal.

16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

You can look at the Ten Commandments and break them into two parts. The first four are all commandments that are related to our relationship with God. Number one is don’t have any other gods before God, meaning don’t place anything on a level above God in your heart. The second one is “don’t make any idols.” This is very similar to the first and is basically don’t worship anything that is not God. The third is don’t take the Lord’s name in vain. Mostly this is viewed as being applied to the sacred name of Yahweh, which is why even in the Bible when the Hebrew is actually Yahweh, we usually translate it instead to “God” or “Lord.” But it also means don’t use the name of God in inappropriate contexts. This can be using the name “God” as an exclamation/curse—which people basically do all the time—and probably most importantly saying things like “I swear to God.” Christians shouldn’t make such vows or oaths lightly, and usually when people say that they don’t mean it at all. They’re just using it as a turn phrase. Now personally this is something I struggle with. I say “oh my God” all the time. This is a really easy one to overlook or break in our modern world.

The fourth one is about keeping the sabbath, basically having one day off a week to rest and refocus on God. All four of these laws are very God focused. They are about our relationship with the creator of the universe.

But the rest of the ten commandments aren’t like that. They don’t really mention God at all. Instead they’re: Honor your parents. Don’t murder. Don’t have an affair. Don’t steal. Don’t lie or gossip about your neighbor. Don’t covet other people’s stuff.

These laws are not about us and God at all, but rather our relationship with each other. Everyone has parents, and it’s important to honor and respect them. We’ve talked about before how that doesn’t always mean to obey them—there are definitely scenarios where parents can be wrong, hurtful, and abusive. But that doesn’t mean we should not treat them with the respect they deserve as humans and the people who brought us into this world. The other laws seem even more obvious. Yes it’s bad to kill people! It’s bad to cheat on people! Stealing is bad. Telling lies or gossip about your friends and neighbors is bad. Don’t be jealous of your friend’s stuff. All of these will cause you bad relationship with other people.

These all seem pretty basic how to lead a good life while following God rules. And most Christians, to be honest, read the Ten Commandments and stop there, as if that is the entire law. But there is way more Law in the Bible. The entire book of Leviticus is basically laws, as is most of Deuteronomy, a good portion of Exodus, and some of Numbers. That’s why we call the first five books of the Bible the Torah or Law. Because they contain the Law God gave down to Moses and it way more than just the 10 commandments. And to our modern eyes, it can be some really random stuff.

Someone read Leviticus 2:11.

11 No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you must not turn any leaven or honey into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord.

This is one verse from a whole section on offering grain to God. And it basically says that any bread offering made to God can’t have yeast in it. It needs to be flatbread. That’s super specific right? And definitely a religious law—a law dictating an appropriate sacrifice to God.

Someone read Leviticus 13:3-4

3 The priest shall examine the disease on the skin of his body, and if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease; after the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean. 4 But if the spot is white in the skin of his body, and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall confine the diseased person for seven days.

This section? This is a leprosy test. Leprosy is a skin disease that could be very contagious and detrimental. So this section basically tells people that if they think they have leprosy to go before a priest. It then tells the priest what to do to determine if it is or is not leprosy and then what to do with the person in either case.

Someone read Leviticus 19:23.

23 When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten.

This is a law about when it’s cool to eat the fruit from a tree after you plant it. Literally a law about agriculture and farming.

What I’m getting at here is these are a lot of laws that cover a lot of topics. Laws on how exactly to celebrate specific holidays. Not just like “Christmas is cool, you should celebrate it.” But like “here are the very exact things you must do to celebrate Passover.” There are laws on who you are and are not allowed to marry. There are laws about how to treat a poor man and laws about how to treat strangers. There are laws about what they’re allowed to eat and what they’re allowed to wear. The Israelites couldn’t eat—still don’t eat—pig, and they couldn’t wear mixed material clothes. And there are very specific laws on how to treat and worship God. These are a lot of laws.

There were even laws on who is allowed to be a priest. And I don’t just mean like now how we have church bi-laws about how to select a pastor and what sort of education one does or does not need to be a pastor and whether or not women are allowed to be pastors. I mean only people of the house of Levi where allowed to be priests at all, and of those, there were a few very critical things that only people directly descended from Aaron were allowed to do as like High Priest.

And if you went against these laws, there were punishments, and some of those punishments were you would die. If the wrong person touched the wrong holy object? They would be struck down dead instantly.

Let’s look at a law with that sort of repercussion.

Someone read Exodus 21: 28-29.

28 When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. 29 If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not restrained it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.

This is the law about what to do if your ox kills someone. Male oxen—bulls—can especially be dangerous, and so things like this did happen. Laws like this can seem like they don’t apply at all today. Most of us don’t own oxen—and the people who do own cattle generally own just modern cows which are pretty docile and don’t hurt people.

For people who still follow the law today, they often look at these sorts of laws and extrapolate them to more modern day things. People don’t own oxen as much, but they do own dogs. So what if your dog bites someone? Perhaps this law can be extrapolated to that scenario. If your dog bites someone and it’s the first offense then it’s not your fault as the owner. However, if it’s bitten people in the past and you didn’t do anything about it, perhaps you owe some sort of reparation to the person bitten—though most modern Jewish people wouldn’t go as far as saying the owner should be put to death.

However, there are many states where the local law is that if your dog bites someone it does have to be put down, so that might be in line with this sort of law. 

For modern Jewish people—whether Orthodox, Conservative, or Reformed—understanding the law and how to extrapolate it to modern lives is very important. To Jewish people following the law is of the utmost importance—because this is God’s law, which in accordance to the Old Testament they are supposed to follow.

However times change, and so the applications of the law can change—as we discussed in the bull vs. dog scenario. The big differences in the branches of modern Judaism is how they interpret the law and how they chose to follow it.

When we studied Jesus we saw that Jesus had some radical ideas about the law. The people in Jesus’s time lived in a very different world from the world in which the law was first introduced. They no longer had their own country, they were subject to Roman rule. Since some of the laws in the Bible are civil laws about how a country should be run, it was harder for them to follow those laws, since now Rome ruled their country.

The Pharisees loved to debate the law, because Pharisees were super concerned about following the law. They believed following the law was the way to live a Godly life—which to be fair to them that was correct as far as they knew in their time period. But Jesus came along with different ideas.

Next week we’re going to look at how Jesus interpreted laws, and why sometimes that got him in trouble with the Pharisees.

Someone read Matthew 12:9-14.

9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10 a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

After the incident in the field Jesus goes to the synagogue—not the temple but whatever local place of worship where he lives. It seems the Pharisees follow him here because once they are in the synagogue, they see a man with a withered hand—that could be a hand broken by something in life, a hand that has been burned by a fire, or a hand that naturally from birth seemed broken. They all see this man—Jesus and the Pharisees and the Pharisees ask him a question “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?”

They know Jesus’s reputation for being a great healer, and they view this as a test—will he heal this guy on the Sabbath and break the law? Clearly healing is work! Or so they say. Jesus responds with a hypothetical situation. Imagine you own only one sheep and on the sabbath it falls in a pit. Would you leave it in the pit—where it might struggle and get sick and die?—or do you rescue it? Of course you rescue it! And he says how much more valuable is a human than a sheep!

So yes you are not supposed to work on the Sabbath, but it is not unlawful to *do good* on the Sabbath. And then Jesus heals the man.

The Pharisees don’t like this. They don’t like that Jesus is making himself the authority on the law and who is and who is not following. Jesus is setting himself up as an authority greater than them—greater than the religious leaders and they don’t like that.

But back to the Law and Jesus’s thoughts on it—I want to be clear that following the Law was supposed to be the Godly thing to do. To be close to God, to be a good follower of God, you were supposed to follow the Law. Which is why to others, it seemed like Jesus was going against God here. And it can be confusing to us. If God laid down the law, if God gave the law to Moses, how can Jesus come along and change the rules? How can Jesus just say “it’s all good, you can heal people on the Sabbath.”

Well there are a couple of things to unpack here, but I think there is one really important one that comes up in Matthew 22:34-40.

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We’ve studied this text before. A lawyer tries to test Jesus. He asks Jesus which law out of all the law is the greatest and Jesus responds with “love the Lord your God wil all your heart and with all your soul and with you all your mind.” And then he says the second is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And he says something critical, all of the law, every law about the Sabbath and whether you can pick apples and how much to pay when your animal hurts someone can be boiled down to these two laws: love God and love each other.

This view of the law is important when you look at Jesus’s answers to the Pharisees about whether he could heal on the synagogue. Jesus views the two most important things as God and people.

Sometimes we as people can get wrapped up in institutions or traditions or ways of doing things as important. But Jesus is saying none of those things is more important than an actual person. The rules around work on the Sabbath is important because it’s important for people to take a break—to rest—it’s also important for people to have a day to focus on God, to love God. But you should not be so committed to the rule of “no work whatsoever” that you are willing to let people suffer.

Serving God and serving people is always more important than the rules. Always.

So Jesus kind of had these radical idea of how to follow the law, and since he was God he was great at looking at the Scriptures and explaining his intent and making everything make sense.

But where we are in Acts, Jesus is gone. The apostles and disciples have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit isn’t the same as having a teacher you can go to.

This new Christian movement had a lot of questions to answer about how they were going to operate with respect to the Law! After all, most Christians were Jews first—like Peter, like John, like Saul/Paul—so it makes sense that they would follow the Law. But soon enough a lot of people who weren’t Jewish were going to start becoming Christians, and they were going to have to ask themselves if non-Jewish Christians were required to follow the Law.

This is a debate that rages in Acts—over multiple chapters and sections. This debate is one of the crucial parts of Acts, and we’re going to start looking at that debate in the next few lessons.

Peter and Herod

Note: This lesson was the first lesson we did virtually because of COVID-19. Therefore, there is a YouTube recording of me doing the video, which you can find here!

Last week we didn’t talk about Acts—we talked about what it means to have faith in a time of fear. We talked about Gideon, Job, and Paul. But today we’re going to get back into Acts, which is what we’re studying this semester in our class: the people of Acts. I’m going to recap a little more than I usually do because there might be some parents on the line. And we don’t want them to be lost do we ;)

We were recently talking about Philip and Peter, two apostles. As a reminder, “apostle” is what we call the remaining eleven disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Why? Well before, they were those silly guys who followed Jesus’s around and only got a fraction of what he said. Now, without Jesus around, they are the leaders of the early church. They are no longer disciples, they are the teachers, teaching others to be disciples. So now when Acts uses the phrase “disciples” it means all the new followers of Jesus, and the original eleven disciples are the Apostles, the leaders.

We did a lesson a few weeks ago about Philip, who was breaking boundaries and reaching people on the fringes of society. He didn’t care who was considered okay or fine by societies standards. He was like “God wants everyone”, so he would talk to anyone who would listen. Philip was busy going all over Israel talking to everyone.

Peter, meanwhile, had this extra pressure. In a lot of ways he was the head apostle. People expected things from him. They were looking to him to help define what it meant to be a Christian, and more importantly who was allowed to be a Christian. Were non Jewish people allowed to be Christians? Or was Christianity just for Jewish people? After all Jesus and the twelve disciples were all Jewish.

But then one day Peter has a vision about all kinds of animals on a blanket, and in the dream God tells him to eat all of them, what God has made clean, Peter cannot declare unclean. Peter doesn’t get the vision. Eating kosher, eating according the law is very important to Jewish people. Why would God change this? Why does God care if Peter eats bacon or not?

At the same time, a Roman Centurion had a vision and sent for Peter to come to his house. Peter does go, and the Roman Centurion wants to know everything about Jesus. This man, who is not Jewish, who is Roman, who is part of the group oppressing the Jewish people, becomes a Christian right then and there. And Peter realizes the vision is not about bacon.

Sure, Christians can eat bacon, whatever, but the vision is about people. It’s about how the old rules don’t apply anymore. Anyone can be a Christian. And it’s not Peter’s right to look at people and declare them unclean.

God cares about people not rules.

We talked about how this can be confusing, it can seem like God changed. But it’s not God who changed. It’s people who changed. Just like how your rules change as you age. It’s not your parents who are changing, it’s you changing, by growing up. A kid needs an earlier bed time than a teen or an adult. You change and therefore the rules must change with you. That’s what’s happening here.

It was never really the rules that mattered. Just like it’s not a bedtime that matters. What matters is getting enough sleep, a bedtime is just a tool to help you get that. In this case, it’s not the rules, it’s about loving God and loving your neighbor. It’s people who mattered.

So what happens after this? What does Peter do after this? Well he keeps on keeping on. Let’s open our Bibles to Acts chapter 12. We’re going to read Acts 12:1-5.

About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. 3 After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.) 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

Okay so the Herod mentioned here is Herod Antipas. He is not the same Herod as when Jesus was born. This is that Herod’s son. He is the Jewish ruler of Judea—as opposed to the Roman governor. Remember, Romans tended to be pretty hands off as far as government went. Sure they sent in their own overseeing governors for regions, but they often raised a ruler of the same nationality or ethnicity of the land they were occupying, because they knew that person would understand the people more. And they delegated some authority to them—not all authority, as you’ll remember for them to crucify Jesus that decision had to go to a Roman, Pilate.

All the Romans really cared about was that you didn’t make trouble and you that you paid your taxes. If your people did those two things, they pretty much left you alone. But Herod sees this new group forming, these Christians, and he knows they are trouble. This is exactly what they were trying to stop by killing Jesus—they were trying to stop this group and movement from forming. Christians looked like a threat to Rome, with all their talk of Jesus being the true king, the true ruler, etc etc.

So Herod is trying to stamp out this Christian threat. He has James the brother of John killed. James was one of the twelve disciples, one of the sons of Thunder they were called. He was loud and boisterous for Jesus. And now he’s dead.

Then he has Peter arrested during Passover. Arresting someone during Passover is a bit of low blow, just like they did with Jesus. They knew that all Jewish men who are able returned to Jerusalem for Passover, during this time period. They knew Peter would be there. So they found him and arrested him.

And after the past shenanigans with Peter mysteriously breaking out of prison—aka being freed by God—Herod assigns four squads of soldiers to guard him. That’s a lot of people to guard one dude.

And the church—the other believers—do the only thing they can. They pray.

Next we’ll read Acts 12:6-11

6 The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Not only does Peter have four squads guarding him, but they also chained him between two soldiers, presumably so that if he even moved they would feel it. But that night, while they’re all watching them an angel appears to Peter and is like “Get up.”

The chains fall off and the angel is basically like “Get dressed, we gotta go!” Peter is like “Whatevs man.”

I don’t know if low pants for boys are still in fashion but if they are, next time they’re too low you can be like “As it says in the Bible, “Fasten your belt!”

Anyway, Peter follows the angel, but basically he thinks the entire thing isn’t real and a dream. He’s like “lol whatever angel. This isn’t real anyway, so I’ll do whatever!”

He follows the angel past a bunch of sleeping guards, and then he follows the angel out the gate and into the city. The gate opens like it’s an automatic door—a completely foreign concept to Peter. And it’s when he’s walking down the city streets and the angel suddenly disappears, that Peter is like, “Wait, maybe this was real? Oh man, I just escaped!” And then if I was Peter, I would probably just straight up run all the way home.

Now we’ll read Acts 12:12-17.

12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many had gathered and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. 14 On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place.

So as soon as Peter realizes it’s real, he goes to the nearest house he can think of, which is the house of Mary—not the mother of Jesus, not the mother of James and John, not Mary Magdalene, no a completely different Mary. Mary the mother of John who was also called Mark, because it’s not the New Testament if we’re not using the same name like twelve times.

Actually fun fact: do you guys know why the name Mary is so popular in the New Testament? I’m going to be hones this is something I just learned in the past like two years, and not something I ever knew.

Mary is a shortening of the name “Miriam” sometimes basically spelled “Maryam.” Miriam was Moses’s sister and a prophet in her own right. She is one of the biggest female characters in the Old Testament. That’s why the name is so popular. John meanwhile is just a shortening of the name Jonathan. If you’ll remember Jonathan was also an Old Testament character, he was king David’s BFF forever.

So this Mary is the mother of a guy we often call “John Mark.” John Mark is the writer of the book of Mark, that’s why it’s called Mark. That name was used to distinguish it from the Gospel of John, which was written by the disciple John. Basically if the Bible just says John, it means the disciple. Because he was the first John he gets that right. Whereas John Mark was much younger, so to differentiate him we call him John Mark. Just like all my life I was called Mandy P to avoid confusion with the twelve thousand other Amandas and Mandys in my class.

Anyway, back to the story. Peter runs to her house and knocks on the outer gate. A maid named Rhoda answers this door. I would like us to just pause for a moment at the amazement that a Biblical writer recorded the name of this woman. He could have just called her a maid, or a slave, or a servant. But no, he actually gives her name. I wish I knew more about this Rhoda, that Luke—the writer of Acts—thought she was important enough to record her name. Because that is unusual. Usually the men thought women’s names were not important.

Anyway, Rhoda hears him and instead of opening the gate she runs inside and tells everyone he’s there. Why doesn’t she open the gate? I don’t know. Perhaps that’s not her job. Perhaps as a mere maid she’s not allowed to be opening the gate in the middle of the night. Or perhaps its just an oversight and she’s so excited she forgets to do the obvious thing before her. I don’t know. All I know is she runs in and tells everyone Peter’s at the gate.

And they all respond like, “This woman is insane and hysterical.” Remember, this is the sexism of the ancient world. They often didn’t trust women, and they would often belittle anything they had to say. So they don’t believe her. And they think if it is Peter, well it must mean he’s dead and that’s his ghost like out there talking to them.

While they’re disbelieving this woman and arguing about it, Peter is still knocking like, “Hey guys? Someone gonna let me in?”

Finally the other people come to the gate and see Peter for themselves. They are shocked, and probably about to make a loud racket about it, but Peter is like, “Hush, let me in, and let me tell ou what happened.” So he tells them what happens and then tells them to tell James.

Did he mean the James who just died at the beginning of this chapter? Maybe? Maybe he forgot James, the son of Zebedee was dead. But James was also another really popular name. James it just the English form of the name Jacob, and Jacob was literally the guy the nation of Israel was named after, so everyone in their mother liked to name their child Jacob or James. It’s more likely he means James, Jesus’s brother.

After Peter tells them everything, he then goes on his way. Peter isn’t going to sit and dwell. He’s got work that needs to be done, a gospel that needs to be spread, a growing movement to wrangle.

Now we’ll read Acts 12:18-19

18 When morning came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 When Herod had searched for him and could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

The next morning the soldiers discover Peter is gone, and well, it doesn’t go well for them. Herod has them search everywhere, but when they can’t be found, he blames the guards. He says they must have failed at their jobs, and he has them all put to death. He can’t believe it’s divine. Remember Herod doesn’t believe in this Christianity business. He thinks it’s all dangerous nonsense.

Herod just wants to keep the peace with Rome, and he does not view Christianity as a good way to do that.

Unfortunately for Herod, none of this works out well for him.

Unrelated to the Christians, Herod was having political troubles with the costal cities of Tyre and Sidon. These are coastal cities. Tyre and Sidon are right on the Meditarrean, pretty far north of Jerusalem, so I’m not certain what Herod’s political pull is up there, they were part of a different region and therefore had a different ruler, as far as I know. However, political squabbling is as old as time and politicians always find ways to try to stretch their power. And in this scenario, it seems that Tyre and Sidon are dependent on Herod’s kingdom for food—probably food like wheats and grains, since Tyre and Sidon would be able to get a ton of seafood but maybe not have a lot of farmland.

So Herod goes there to deal with it, and while he is there he falls down dead.

The Bible says he was struck down by God, and that’s definitely how the Christians of the time viewed it. They viewed it as divine retribution for all the harm that Herod had done to the church.

And so with Herod out of the way, the church continues to advance and grow, and flourish. Barnabas and Saul are spreading the word, and bringing along the young John Mark about them, but we’ll discuss that more next week!

Peter and Cornelius

We recently talked about how Philip, one of the apostles, was crossing lines and reaching people that normally were left on the fringes. He brought people to Christ that normally others would ignore or view as not acceptable for the Temple or society. Philip didn’t stop and question whether or not he should bring these people to Jesus. Instead he just said, “These people want to know Jesus and I want to bring them to him.”

This week, we’re going to see Peter come into contact with the same dilemma, the question of “Who.” Who is worthy to be a follower of Jesus. Who should they be reaching. Who should they be focusing on.

Remember up to this point, their main focus had been reaching other Jewish people. Jesus was Jewish. Peter is Jewish. Philip is Jewish. Saul/Paul is Jewish. Even the Samaritans are within a stone’s throw of being Jewish. But what about people who aren’t Jewish? What about people who don’t even know the Temple exists? What about the Gentiles?

Please open your Bibles to Acts. Someone please read Acts 10:1-8.

10 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3 One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8 and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

Here we meet a man named Cornelius, a centurion. From this sentence it’s very clear that Cornelius is a Roman. He’s part of the Italian cohort—so he’s from Italy. His name is Cornelius—which is a super traditional Roman name. As a centurion he’s a leader in the army, in charge of one hundred men. He’s not just a foot soldier. He’s a leader in the group that is occupying Israel, literally participating in the oppression of Israel.

This is not the kind of person that a Jewish person would really socialize with.

But in the next section we read that he was a devout man who constantly prayed to God—meaning the Jewish God. Perhaps in his time in Israel, he had learned from the people he was in charge of, and somehow he found God.

One afternoon, Cornelius is just hanging about when an angel comes to him. This angel tells him to send for a man named Simon who is called Peter to come to him. The angel doesn’t explain why, he just says to do it. And so immediately Cornelius sends out two of his slaves and one of his solders to go fetch Peter, who is staying in another city.

Someone please read Acts 10:9-16.

9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

So at noon the next day, the slaves and soldier are on their way to get Peter. Meanwhile, Peter is on his roof praying. They would have had flat roofs like we have here in New Mexico, and you would be able to go up there and just chill if you wanted to. So he’s up there praying when he gets hungry. He asks for some food to be prepared, and then while it’s being made, he has a vision.

In the vision, heaven opens up and a large sheet comes down—like a large blanket, being carried down by it’s four corners. And on the blanket is every kind of animal: pigs, goats, reptiles, birds, all of it, including the animals that the law expressly forbids from being eaten.

For a reminder, the law dictates what is and is not okay for Jewish people to eat. Someone please flip back and read Leviticus 11:1-8.

11 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them: 2 Speak to the people of Israel, saying:

From among all the land animals, these are the creatures that you may eat. 3 Any animal that has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed and chews the cud—such you may eat. 4 But among those that chew the cud or have divided hoofs, you shall not eat the following: the camel, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 5 The rock badger, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 6 The hare, for even though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; it is unclean for you. 7 The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean for you.

In Leviticus 11, God lays out what is and is not okay to eat. They can eat cows but not pigs. But even the cows they eat have to be killed a very certain way or else they can’t eat them. They can’t eat snakes or reptiles. There are some birds they can eat and others they can’t. Today these laws have been interpreted into what we call “kosher.”

Jewish people take this very seriously. Almost every practicing Jewish person follows some version of kosher. It’s part of their identity of what makes them Jewish, part of what makes them who they are.

So when Peter has this vision, there are all kinds of animals on the blanket: kosher and non kosher. Cows and pigs. Reptiles and birds. Every kind of animal Peter knows of is on that blanket.

Then in his vision Peter hears a voice tell him to kill and eat the animals. And Peter is like, “What? No God! I would never eat anything unclean.”

Peter seems to think this is a test, that’s why he answers as he does. He’s like “of course I would never go against you and eat anything I’m not supposed to God! I’m Jewish!”

But God doesn’t answer in the way Peter might expect. Instead God says, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

What does this mean? What God has made clean, we must not call profane. What does profane mean? Sometimes people use the word “unclean” instead, but this isn’t really a clean verses dirty situation. It’s about what is religiously okay and religiously not okay. So profane in this situation means “religiously not okay.”

Peter, like all Jewish people of his time, thinks that eating certain animals is not religiously okay. And it’s not for no reason he thinks this! It’s directly called out in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. But here God is like, “I’m saying this is okay, Peter. I am declaring this clean. And you as a human have no right to call something unclean that I have declared clean.”

This vision happens three times. Someone please read Acts 10:17-23.

17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate. 18 They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. 19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three men are searching for you. 20 Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.” 21 So Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” 22 They answered, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” 23 So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging.

The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. 

Peter is really confused by his vision. He saw it three times, and he honestly doesn’t know what to make of it. Was it just a dream caused by hunger? What is God? If it was God, why is God reaching out to Peter about food? Does the food he chooses really matter that much? Why is God choosing now to reach out to him about this? Peter doesn’t know, and he’s really confused.

While Peter is confused, the men sent by Cornelius appear at that house and start asking about Peter. God tells Peter to go down and go with the men without hesitation. So Peter goes down to the men and is like, “I’m Peter, what’s up?”

And the men tell them they work for Cornelius, a Roman centurion who is God fearing, and that an angel told Cornelius to get Peter.

Peter invites them in and let’s them stay the night and then the first thing the next day, he gets up and goes with them to where Cornelius lives.

Someone read Acts 10:24-33.

 24 The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. 26 But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28 and he said to them, “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?”

30 Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. 31 He said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ 33 Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.”

Peter gets to Caesarea, and of course Cornelius as expecting him. Cornelius had called his whole family to be there, in order that they would all be able to see Peter and hear what he has to say. For Cornelius, the good news isn’t just for himself. It’s for everyone.

When Peter arrives, Cornelius falls to his feet, but Peter stops him, all like, “I’m only a man. I’m not God.” And then Peter sees everyone who is assembled, and is like, “You guys know it’s unlawful for a Jewish person like myself to associate or visit a Gentile.

So I want to discuss this thought of Peter’s briefly. There is not actually a law that says Jewish people can’t visit with or associate with Gentiles. It’s almost impossible for Jewish people to never socialize with Gentiles. There are laws about Jewish people marrying Gentiles, but even in the Old Testament, we see those laws are set aside for certain people—like Ruth, Gentiles who chose to follow God.

However, because the Jewish people are God’s chosen people, and sometimes association with Gentiles would lead to the temptation of Idolatry—worshiping other Gods—the Jewish people made themselves more standoffish to Gentiles, trying to set themselves apart so they wouldn’t be tempted. This is another example of people going beyond the Law, interpreting the Law more extreme than it’s actually written.  

And this is the moment of seeing this Roman who wants to follow God, this is the moment that Peter realizes what the vision was about. Because God showed him a vision—showed him all these animals and told him to eat. And while, fine, it cane be about food, it’s more importantly about people. It’s about the Gentiles. Peter doesn’t have the right to call these Gentiles profane or unclean, to say that they are not worthy of God.

Jewish tradition and law may say that Peter shouldn’t socialize or hang out with Gentiles. It may say that Jewish people are supposed to be a people apart. But God told Peter not to call profane what he has called clean. And this is about Cornelius, it’s about the Gentiles, it’s about us.

God is saying all people can come to him. That God wants to reach all people, and the apostles should not stop themselves from reaching anyone because they are afraid those people are unclean.

God is for all of us.

Someone please read Acts 10:34-43.

34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Here Peter is just speaking what he finally understands. That Jesus did not just come for Jewish people. He came for all of us. And that anyone can receive forgiveness of sins through him. Jewish people, Romans, Ethiopians, everyone. That any excuse anyone may make for racial, ethnic, or national reasons to not share the Gospel with someone is wrong. Jesus came for everyone.

Someone please read Acts 10:44-48.

44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47 “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

And Peter didn’t just speechify about his new found conviction that Jesus is for everyone. He acted on it. He baptized everyone who wanted to be baptized in Jesus’s name. After this Peter basically uses his authority as an apostle to open up the ministry of Jesus to all nations, to all peoples, not just Jewish people, but even this is not an easy transition.

Sure non-Jewish people can follow Jesus now, but there is another important question related to this that the apostles needed to deal with. Did Gentiles need to convert to Judaism in order to become Christians?  And who is going to travel to take the word to the Gentiles? Most of the apostles are based in Jerusalem, and that’s the area they are familiar with. So how are they going to reach these people?

Well that’s pretty much what the rest of Acts is about! So we’ll continue to cover this next w

Philip and the Unexpected Believers

Last week we took another look at the Law—the rules laid out in the first five books of the Bible. We talked about how the Law was something that Jewish people take very seriously—that following the Law is believed to be the way a believer follows God. Therefore, it’s very important to understand the Law and it’s impacts on your own life. We also took another look at Jesus’ complicated relationship with the Law. The Law was not exactly straight forward, it was something to be debated; however, there were some laws that people viewed as very clear cut. Jesus on the other hand even called into question those supposedly clear cut Laws.

Which brings us to Acts. Peter and the other apostles are spreading the word of Jesus with reckless abandon! They want to bring everyone to him—or do they? So far the stories have mostly been focusing on their efforts with other Jewish people—whether Greek Jews or Aramaic Jews. Peter and the apostles are pretty specifically spreading the word to other Jewish people. But things don’t stay that way for long, and it brings up a lot of questions of the Law.

Someone please read Acts 8:4-8.

4 Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6 The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, 7 for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

Philip is one of the twelve disciples, who is now one of the Apostles leading this early Christian movement. Like Peter, he is out spreading the word with reckless abandon—going wherever God would have him go. Here Philip goes to Samaria.

We’ve talked about Samaria before, when we studied the story of the Good Samaritan and the story of the Woman at the Well. But to remind us: Samaria is the Northern Region, what was once known as the kingdom of Israel, or what we sometimes referred to as the Northern Kingdom in our studies. This is the area of land that fell long before Judah—to the Assyrians. While Judah later fell to the Babylonians. While the people of Judah were able to retain their identity and their Jewishness, and if anything stick closer to the law during their exile, the Northern Kingdom was different.  They were completely conquered and subjugated. Most of them were even moved out of Israel. And most of them lost their identity, they forgot they were Jewish.

However there were some people who remained. These people probably intermarried with the people brought in by the Assyrians. And to the Jewish people in the south, that would be unacceptable, a tainting of God’s chosen people and tradition. According to the Law, Jewish people were supposed to marry other Jewish people, not marry outsiders. But worst of all, the Samaritans and Jewish people constantly fought and had been fighting—not just wars, though that too, but over a question of identity.

The Samaritans said they were God’s chosen people, they were the ones worshipping God correctly in the high places of the mountains in Northern Israel, and that the entire temple system set up in Judah was a fraud. So to a Jewish person not only are Samaritans questionable because they married into other people groups, but now they’re claiming they are the God’s chosen people, the Children of Abraham via Joseph, and that the people of Judah are wrong.

This at the core a question of the Law, a question of the interpretation of the Law, what it means to be Jewish and what it means to follow God. The way the Jewish people followed the Law in Jerusalem, the Samaritans could never be accepted.

This isn’t like today, where you can be Presbyterian, your friend can be Baptist, and your cousin Catholic and everyone agrees to disagree. This is more like the Irish troubles of the 70s, where the Catholics and Protestants were at such a disagreement that they wanted to murder each other.

Romans might be the oppressor who overtook Israel, but Samaritans were the Jewish’s people’s personal nemesis. They hated Samaritans more than anyone else on the planet.

But Philip still goes there, he still preaches to them, and they come to Christianity in droves. They would never be accepted in Judaism, but the message of Jesus is that these delineations no longer matter. That they can worship Jesus anywhere, not just in a Temple. And they can let go of their past lives, their past sins, and come to God anew.

Someone please read Acts 8:9-13.

9 Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great. 10 All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed. After being baptized, he stayed constantly with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took place.

In Samaria, there is a guy named Simon. He was a practioner of magic. This isn’t like Harry Potter magic. He was more likely some sort of illusionist, like modern magicians, using tricks to bamboozle people. Whereas today, we know that magicians aren’t actually doing magic—that they have the cards in the sleeves or the dove in a special compartment of their hat, back then people would have taken this very seriously, and thought he was a serious magician. They would have thought he was using spirits to do magic—and maybe even sometimes he thought that too.

The people of Samaria were super impressed with him. They thought he had the power of God, because he could do these things.

Then comes along Philip, bringing everyone to Jesus—even Simon! This is a big deal and once again a question of the Law. Because the law is very clear what should happen to people who practice magic. Magic is a capital offense. In Leviticus it directly says that people who practice magic should be put to death—this is the sort of rational people used during the Salem witch trials to kill the people they thought were witches.

But Philip doesn’t use that interpretation of the Law to make everyone riot against Simon and kill him. No! Instead he spreads the good news to Simon too, and in the end Simon also becomes a Christian!

I’m sure that means he turned from his charlatan ways, because that’s the thing about following Jesus, you no longer want to do the sinful things were doing before. But Philip didn’t necessarily know if that would happen. If he knew the Law, he would know Simon was someone he was supposed to stay away from. But instead, Philip offered Simon the chance to follow Jesus, and Simon took it.

Because Jesus is for everyone.

This isn’t the only time Philip brings Jesus to someone the Law doesn’t necessarily welcome.

Someone please read Acts 8:26-28.

26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south[g] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 

Once again, Philip is going where his God tells him to go. In this case, an angel tells Philip to go to a random road in the middle of the wilderness.

If I was Philip I’d probably be like, “lol—what? You want me to go where?” It would be like God asking you to go to a random country road in the middle of nowhere New Mexico where you would probably be unlikely to meet anyone. It just seems random! But Philip has faith in scads, so he goes to the place where God has asked him.

Lo and behold, while he is there, an Ethiopian eunuch is traveling down this road.

As an Ethiopian, this person is clearly not born Jewish. He is from another country, and not born of Jewish heritage it would seem. However, somehow this guy came to want to be a follower of God, so he went to Jerusalem to worship.

I wonder what kind of reception this guy received in Jerusalem, at the temple. It’s possible it did not go well at all. He’s an outsider—probably easily marked by the color of his skin, his accent, and probably even his clothes. But he’s also a eunuch.

For those of you who don’t know what a eunuch is: it’s basically when you take a boy and have them neutered—as often do to our dogs or cats or horses. We do this to animals so they can’t have puppies, or kittens, or whatever. But in the ancient world, rulers used to do this to boys.  This is not really a practice that exists anymore; however, in the ancient world there were many reasons rulers used to do such a thing. Sometimes they would do it to their enemies, so they could never bear children. But often, they would do this to children, so that those boys would grow up, different. Eunuch children wouldn’t go through puberty like a normal boy, they wouldn’t develop like a normal boy. They could often look different. Their voices were certainly different—their voices never dropped. Many eunuchs were treasured for their singing voices.

But rulers did this to boys, so they could have a class of people who were not quite men or women—who they could then trust to go between the realms of men or women. You could trust these men amongst your wives, because they could not “accidentally” get your wives pregnant, and therefore bring into question your entire royal line.

The Bible uses male pronouns for the eunuch, but the truth is that eunuchs were viewed not quite as full men, not quite granted the privileges and rights of a regular man. They were viewed a bit like a class to themselves.

And since they were often visibly and definitely audibly different, you could tell when you met a eunuch that they were a eunuch.

Why is this important? Well, because depending on your interpretation of the Law, it’s highly likely that when the eunuch came to the Temple, he wasn’t allowed in because of his status as a eunuch. It’s highly likely that they used the Law as written in Deuteronomy 23:1—which seems to address men in his situation—to refuse him entry.

Imagine traveling all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, just to be rejected at his destination.

So it’s entirely possible that this Ethiopian is leaving Jerusalem a bit defeated, a bit dejected, a bit on the outside.

Someone read Acts: 8:29-34.

29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 

Philip is on this road, when the eunuch goes by, and God is like, “Hey Philip, join this guy in his charios.” And Philip is like, “Okay God” and literally runs up to the chariot—which takes some guts. Chariots have been known to trample people on occasion. But perhaps the chariot was stopped, I’m not sure.

Anyway, Philip runs up and hears the eunuch reading from the prophet Isaiah. Why does this eunuch have a copy of Isaiah? Who knows! It’s not like the Bible and its books were something you could buy at any bookstore, like today. There were no bookstores bake then, and there was no compiled Bible. Every synagogue would have a copy of the Law, the torah, and I’m sure the scholars and religious leaders all had copies of the other books of the Bible, but it’s unlikely that they were something super circulated.

However, this eunuch was a court official, so he probably had some political reach. Eunuchs were also generally very educated, courts and rulers viewed them as an investment in their court, people who could act as scribes and secretaries.

It’s possible that the eunuch found the copy of Isaiah first, somewhere in Ethiopia, and that’s what drove him to Jerusalem, the scripture he read there. Or it’s possible that once in Jerusalem—despairing about how he wasn’t being allowed to worship—someone gave him a copy of Isaiah to comfort him. Because despite what the Law says, or seems to say, about eunuchs not being able to worship in the temple, Isaiah had some very comforting words for eunuchs.

Someone read Isaiah 56:3-8.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
    and hold fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
8 Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.

These verses seem to directly address the eunuchs situation. He is a foreigner. He is a eunuch. I’m sure as he read this, he thought “This Jewish God is speaking to me.” That’s probably the draw of Isaiah to him, the draw of the Jewish God. God is saying, “Hey eunuch, it doesn’t matter that you can’t have children. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t born as one of my chosen people. All can come to me. No one should stop you from coming to me. You too can be holy, you too can be complete, you too can be part of all of this.”

In the last verses it says God gathers the outcasts of Israel. He takes the people that Israelite society has said, “No, you’re not good enough for us” and God says, “it’s doesn’t matter, they are good enough for me.”

I like to think those are the verses the eunuch found comfort in, even as society told him he was less than—less than a man, less than worthy.

But that’s not the section of Isaiah he’s reading when Philip pops up! He’s reading another section, about a lamb led to the slaughter. And he’s reading it like, “Dude, I have no idea what this means. Why is this Isaiah guy talking in riddles.”

So when Philip pops up, the eunuch is like, “Hey, you’re Jewish. What does this mean?” Lucky for him—or rather as God planned—Philip has the answer.

Someone read Acts 8:35-40.

35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

When the eunuch asks Philip about these verses, he’s like, “Oh boy, do I have good news for you! That innocent lamb led to slaughter? I met him! His name was totally Jesus!!! Let me tell you all about him.”

And the eunuch is like, “THAT IS AMAZING!” In fact he’s so amazed that at one point he sees water and he’s like, “Can I get baptized right now?” Remember baptism is a symbol—a symbol that you are choosing to follow Jesus, that you are becoming part of his family, and this eunuch doesn’t want to waste any time. He wants to be baptized, to become a follower ASAP.

But I imagine after his experience at the Temple, there is a part of him who is expecting Philip to be like, “Oh no, we can’t do that—there are all these rules surrounding baptism, and we have to wait” or to say that people like eunuchs can’t be baptized. That’s probably why he asks, “Is there anything to prevent me from being baptized?”

But Philip is like, “No! Let’s do it right now! This is so exciting!” And they stop the chariot, they both hop out, and Philip baptizes him in the water. Is it a pond? A river? A lake? I have no idea. But they don’t care. They just care that it’s enough water to perform a baptism so that this eunuch can start his new life, as an accepted follower of Jesus, a child of God.

The Bible says as soon as the Baptism is completed, that God snatches Philip away, to send him somewhere else. The eunuch sees this, he is amazed, and he starts rejoicing. He is a follower of a real, powerful God, who cares about people like him—a mere eunuch. Society may not value him as much as a normal man, but God does. And the eunuch is going to spend his days rejoicing.

Meanwhile, Philip just keeps preaching wherever God takes him.

This story can seem random—it’s after Stephen’s stoning and before Saul’s conversion. It’s just a little story in the Bible, but I wanted to stop and talk about it a few reasons. One—this is just another example of how the apostles and early disciples are spreading the word with reckless abandon. But two—and more importantly—it’s about how God loves the people on the fringes of society and wants them as part of his crew as well.

We as a society often make up a bunch of rules about what makes someone acceptable to socialize with us, to be a part of us. Sometimes we—as a church or a culture—make up rules and we try to attribute them to God. We try to say it’s God who cares how you dress on Sunday. God who cares what color your skin is. That we’re just following God when we discriminate or enforce a rule.

This was seen a lot during the times of slavery, but also during the Jim Crow era in the South. We tried to say it was God who said that a white person and a black person marrying was wrong. When really it was just us, and our racism.

The eunuch probably came across a lot of people in life who told him he didn’t fit in societal boxes enough to join them. He certainly would have at the Temple. Like I said, it’s highly likely they wouldn’t let him worship at the Temple because of his status as a eunuch.

But God doesn’t care about these man-made things. God doesn’t view rules or institutions as more important than people. He wants all people to come to him, regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their status as a foreigner, regardless of their questionable gender. He wants them all.

Don’t ever let anything stop you from coming to God.  

Saul and the Road to Damascus

Last week we talked about Stephen, who was the first follower of Jesus to be put to death for his beliefs. However, as we discussed he was not the last, and there was one man who viewed it as basically his personal mission to stamp out all Christians: his name was Saul.

Saul was there watching Stephen be stoned. It’s not clear whether he participated, but it is clear that he is happy about it. Someone read Acts 8:1-3.

1 And Saul approved of their killing him.

That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.

Saul approved of Stephen’s stoning—a stoning that was more of a mob action than an execution. Saul saw this man stoned to death and thought, “Yep, we did a good job.” And then from that day forward, Saul made it his personal mission in life to stamp out all Christians. Someone read Acts 9:1-2.

9 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Saul is not just content to stamp out the Christians in Jerusalem. He hears about Christians in a place called Damascus, and he asks the High Priest if he can go there personally and stamp them out—to arrest these men and women following Christianity and drag them against their will back to Jerusalem to be tried in court. And knowing Saul, he would probably be happy to see them all die like Steven.

He basically wants all Christians to die, he wants the whole movement to die before it can get any further. Why? Why is Saul like this?

Well, if there is one person in the Bible who we know a lot about, it’s this man named Saul. As we’ve talked about before, he is the apostle Paul, who wrote the majority of the epistles in the Bible. He is responsible for writing the books of Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.  He wrote 13 books of the Bible. And if those books give us one thing, it’s insight into the mind of Paul. He talks about himself, critically, and why he did the things he did.

Keep a finger in where we are in Acts because we’re going to come back but we’re going to flip around a bit to understand Saul a little bit better. First I need someone to read Acts 22:3-4 and someone else to read Philippians 3:4-6, so we can read these back to back. (Wait til the two identified students both find their verses)

Okay read Acts 22:3-4.

3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,

I want you guys to flip to Philippians. Someone please read Philippians 3:4-6.

4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

In the Acts segment Paul is giving a speech about himself and n the Philippians segment it is literally Paul writing about himself. In both these cases he’s talking about who he was before he was a Christian and a bit of why he did it. So who was Saul/Paul and why did he do the things he did?

Saul was born Jewish. He wasn’t just Jewish he said—he was the Jew’s Jew. That’s like saying you’re a man’s man—you’re the man that other men think of when they think of the most manly man ever. Saul was the most Jewish Jew ever. He took pride and comfort in his status. Because unlike the disciples, Saul wasn’t like a fisherman or a carpenter—no Saul was literally raised to be a leader in the Jewish community. He was educated by one of the leading members of the council—Gamaliel—who is the guy we talked about a few weeks ago who convinced the other council members to ignore the threat of Peter and John and the disciples.

Saul was educated and taught in the law. He was taught not just to read and write—but to read and write well. In a time where if a person knew how to read it was a few words, Saul was being taught to write persuasive essays and debate his faith.

And because Saul was raised to be a leader and defender of his faith, his faith and his identity as a Jewish man was literally the most important thing about him. He wanted to uphold the Law to the upmost of his ability, not just that he was upholding the law himself, but be a leader and make sure everyone else was upholding the law.

So what does this have to do with persecuting Christians? Saul saw them as a threat to Judaism, the Law, and God. In his opinion it’s heresy and blasphemy and basically a cancer growing in the heart of Judaism. And he is personally going to cure this cancer by removing it from the rest of Israel.

So Saul heads to Damascus, and things don’t quite go as he expects.

Someone read Acts 9:3-9.

3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Saul is on his way to Damascus—intent to get there and drag people to “justice” when suddenly a light from heaven surrounds him. He falls to the ground, overwhelmed, and hears a voice. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

And Saul is just like, “OMG. Who are you? What is this? What is happening?”

And of course it’s Jesus, he’s sort of like, “Have you been persecuting more than one group recently? Obviously it’s me, Jesus.”

If I was Saul, I’d be super worried at this point that Jesus was here to like personally strike me dead. Instead, Jesus is like, “Get up and go to the city, and there you will be told what to do.”

Saul gets up to go, and he can’t see anything—the light struck him blind. He can’t see. So the men with him have to lead him to Damascus. Fortunately .the men around him also heard the voice—even if they didn’t see anything—so they don’t think Saul is like crazy. They are just as stunned as he is.

Three days on the way to Damascus Saul is without sight, and he fasts during that time.

Someone read Acts 9:10-17.

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.”  15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

In Damascus there happens to be a Christian named Ananias. God comes to him in a vision, and Ananias is all like, “I am here God! Tell me what to do! I am yours to command.”

And then, God tells him what to do—he tells him to go and find a guy named Saul and heal him.

Now must of us think that if God appeared to us and told us what to do, we’d do it. That if God would just speak to us clearly, we would follow him without question. But the Bible shows us over and over and over again that that’s not true. God tells people directly to do something and instead the people are like, “Um, God, are you sure you meant that?”

So instead of being like, “Yes, God! I’ll do it” Ananias instead is like, “Umm, God? I’ve heard about Saul before. I don’t know if you know this, but he’s like a bad dude. Surely, you don’t mean him. Surely you’re going to like smite him or something. Surely you wouldn’t ask me to heal the guy who has killed so many of your followers.”

But God is just like, “I have chosen Saul. You have no idea what he is going to go through for me—what I’m going to ask him to do—and he will take word of me to the Gentiles and Kings and everyone. He will spread my word as no one has before, and he will suffer for my sake.”

Maybe it’s that last bit about suffering that gets Ananias out the door, like “I hate him, but at least he’s going to suffer.” I don’t know. But in the end, Ananias does go out and he does heal Saul, in the name of Jesus.

Someone read Acts 9:18-22

18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” 22 Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

Saul’s sight is restored. It’s like he had cataracts and they fall off his eyes and he can see again! And as soon as he gets up, he is baptized—a symbol of a new life, that his old sins are washed away and a public declaration that he is now a follower of Jesus.

After that, Saul hangs out in Damascus eating food and recovering and just taking some time. I also imagine during this time he was talking to the disciples, trying to learn everything he could about Jesus.

Then as soon as Saul regains his strength, he goes to the synagogue and starts proclaiming Jesus. He’s doing the very thing he came to arrest people before.

Everyone who hears him is stunned. They know who Saul is—they’ve heard about his mission to take out all the Christians. He knows what he came there to do. And instead he’s doing the exact opposite.

This complete change, this complete turn-around is a gamechanger, it’s an inspiration, it’s a powerful show of the change Jesus can have on someone’s life, how an encounter with Jesus can change everything. They can’t deny it when they see Saul. Something happened to Saul—someone happened to Saul. And considering how much Saul had invested in the Jewish establishment, no one can believe this would be a hoax or a joke. Saul must have seen something, he must have encountered something. This is real.

Saul has too much to lose for it be anything but real.

Someone read Acts 9:23-25.

23 After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Saul’s witness is too powerful—it’s too much. And soon the very people he used to work for want him out. It’s too much, for him to turn traitor. So they plot to kill him.

Fortunately, somehow Saul gets wind of this. Maybe he still has friends in the Jewish establishment and they leak it to him. I don’t know how he finds out, but he does. And the people who want to kill him are watching the gates all day and all night, waiting for Saul to come out so they can kill him.

Saul has to sneak out. The other disciples help him. They go to the city wall, they find an opening and then they lower him from the wall in a basket. It probably took a bunch of dudes to do this, it’s not easy to lower another person in a basket without just straight up dropping him. But Saul does make it out.

There is an irony in all of this. That Saul, who was the hammer of the Jewish government, the one who was hunting Christians down, and instead Saul is now the one who is hunted.

Someone read Acts 9:26-31.

26 When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Saul escapes Damascus, where he became public enemy number one, and goes to Jerusalem. There he attempts to join the Christians in Jerusalem and they basically are too scared of him to let him join. News didn’t travel back then like it does now. There was probably nothing Saul could have said or done that would convince the disciples in Jerusalem that he wasn’t there to kill him.

But one guy goes out on a limb—a guy named Barnabas. He takes Saul at his word, that he’s not there to get on the inside of their organization so that he can take them down from within. Barnabas then takes Saul directly to the apostles—Peter and John and all of them. Barnabas vouches for Saul, and gives him a chance.

And the apostles listen. And then they basically set Saul loose on Jerusalem. He immediately starts preaching. And once again it’s this huge turn around. Everyone knew Saul, everyone knew who he was and what he stood for. He was the Jew’s Jew. There was no one more Jewish than Saul. And now suddenly he is proclaiming Jesus?

It’s unfathomable!

And again people want to kill him. And again the other believers have to basically disappear him and send him somewhere else.

And the church continues to increase!

This is just the beginning of Saul, and what he is going to do. We’re going to see much more of him, because as I’ve already said, he wrote most of the New Testament. Saul isn’t going anywhere, and no one is going to stop him.

He is going to preach the word until the day he dies, even though it has cost him his social standing, his job, everything. It doesn’t matter. Because now Saul knows the truth, he knows Jesus is the way, and no one is going to stop him from boldly proclaiming that all over the world.

Stephen

Last week we talked about how the apostles were spreading the good news of Jesus—and people were flocking to them. Thousands of people heard their message and believed, which made the religious leaders in Jerusalem very angry. They arrested Peter and John and told them to stop, but they refused. The next time they arrested them they had them flogged, but that still didn’t stop them.

They refused to stop, and kept spreading the word. No human authority was going to make them stop.

But flogging wasn’t the only thing the religious leaders could do. There was worse to come. But before we get to that, let’s start at Acts 6:1-7.

6 Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2 And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4 while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5 What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

This chapter starts out by telling us that the disciples were increasing in number, and because of that increase there was a problem between two groups: the Hellenists and the Hebrews. Now this can be a little confusing, because we generally think of the word Hebrews as meaning the people that became the Jewish people—the Hebrews were what they were called back in the time of Moses. So it came seem like there is a fight going on between the Jewish people and another people. But that’s not what’s happening here. While there were Gentile—or non-Jewish people who believed at this point—it wasn’t a group that the apostles were actively talking to yet. The vast majority of believers were Jewish. So this is not a fight between Jewish believers and non-Jewish believers. This is a fight between Greek speaking Jewish people and Aramaic speaking Jewish people. Remember Aramaic was the common language in Israel at that time, Aramaic was the language that Jesus spoke.

We’ve talked about before that people will find the oddest reasons to discriminate against others and decide one group is better than another. This is one of those odd reasons—it had to do with what language they spoke, and I’m sure there was a correlation between language and a cultural difference. They were all Jewish, they just spoke different languages.

So the Greek Jews are angry because they think their widows are being neglected as compared to the Aramaic Jews. And based on everyone’s response, and how they create a team of Greek Jews to deal with this problem, it’s probably true. The Aramaic Jews are probably looking out more for their widows, and there are probably more Aramaic Jews, and that meant the Greek Jews were being marganlized.

So this issue is brought before the twelve apostles, who then gather everyone. Peter and the apostles are like, “We, the Twelve, don’t really have time to deal with making sure everything is fair between you guys. Our job right now is to spread the word. But we hear this issue and it is a problem.” So to deal with the problem, they choose seven Greek Jewish men to deal with it—to make sure the widows in the Greek Jewish community are served.

You can tell the men they chose are Greek Jews by their names. Stephen is not an Aramaic name, it’s a Greek name.

Everyone is pleased with this course of action, and they all pray over these men. Then they all get back to work—spreading God’s word, helping the poor and the widows. And the number of disciples continues to grow.

Someone read Acts 6:8-15.

8 Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. 11 Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. 13 They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” 15 And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Stephen—who is one of the seven Greek guys called out previously—is a great guy. He’s full of gracy and power, he is able to do great works in Jesus name. But one day when he’s at a synagogue, a bunch of other non-Christian Greek Jews start a debate with him. But Stephen is so filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit, that they don’t stand a chance. Stephen completely owns them.

They are not happy about this. They don’t like the stuff Stephen is saying, and they don’t like that he can beat them in a debate. So they start telling people that Stephen is blaspheming against Moses and God. Remember blasphemy is saying something bad about God—saying that God does something against his nature, or something that is just blatantly untrue about God. Today lots of people say bad things about God all the time—without a concern for that. But back then in ancient Jerusalem they took this kind of stuff very seriously, especially the religious leaders.

So they had Stephen arrested. Then they find some people to lie and say before the council that Stephen is always saying bad things about the temple and the law, and that he is preaching that Jesus is going to destroy everything.

Everyone turns to Stephen, and they see he has a face of an angel—what does that mean? Maybe that he looked innocent and unconcerned? Maybe that he looked like he was shining with a holy light? I don’t know, but it was something special.

Someone please read Acts 7:1-8.

7 Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen replied:

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living. 5 He did not give him any of it as a heritage, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child. 6 And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

They’re going to give Stephen a chance to respond to these accusations—and Stephen is going to use that chance to give a whole speech, and we’re actually going to walk through his speech here because it’s great and it’s a reminder of things we’ve studied in the past! So Stephen doesn’t go directly into talking about Jesus, instead he goes back to the beginning of the Hebrew people, the point when they were set aside as God’s chosen people. He goes back to Abraham.

He reminds them how God came to Abraham well before he lived in the Promised Land—in Israel. And that God told him to leave his country and follow him, and Abraham did! Because of Abraham’s faithfulness, God made him the father of his chosen people.

God even told Abraham that hard times would be ahead, that Abraham’s descendants would live as strangers in a strange land, that they would be enslaved and mistreated, but God promised him that he would judge that nation, and that he would bring his descendants out in the end.

Now I’m sure at this point you’re like “Umm, what does this have to do with anything Stephen?” And I bet the council members were wondering the same thing. Stephen has been brought here because of blasphemy against God, and talking about Jesus, and instead he’s giving them a history lesson.

But this is all part of Stephen’s master debating tactics. He’s got a point, he’s just got to set things up to get us there.

Someone read Acts 7:9-16.

9 “The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him, 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan, and great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit. 13 On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all; 15 so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors, 16 and their bodies[a] were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Stephen continues his history lesson, going on to Joseph—who is Abraham’s great-grandson. He reminds everyone how Joseph was betrayed by his brothers—who are the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. These men who are the founders of the twelve tribes—who are remembered in many ways as men of God—were jealous of their brother and hated him, so they sold him as a slave.

But God was with Joseph—and as we’ve discussed in the past Joseph went through many terrible things in Egypt, but it all ended with him being second to only the pharaoh. Because of his position, Joseph was able to secure Egypt against the coming famine.

But the famine hit the rest of his family hard, and they came to Egypt asking for good. And that was God’s purpose for Joseph in Egypt. Despite his brothers’ evil towards him, God had a plan for Joseph, and God used Joseph’s position to save them all.

This is going to be a theme we see in Stephen’s lecture. That the majority of people—in this case all of Joseph’s brothers—are making bad decisions, and don’t understand a good thing amongst them when they see it. But God uses everything for his glory.

Someone read Acts 7:17-29.

17 “But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied 18 until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. 19 He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house; 21 and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. 26 The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

The descendants of Abraham, the Hebrews, remained in Egypt past the time of Joseph. A new pharaoh who didn’t remember Joseph and everything he had done for Egypt was in power, and he dealt very harshly with the Hebrews. This story should be familiar to everyone, not only because we studied it, but because of movies like The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt. The story of Moses is one of the most well known stories in the entire Bible.

God promises a deliverer to bring the people out of Egypt, and he gave them Moses. Moses actually ended up being raised in the house of Pharaoh, adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter.

But one day Moses was out seeing the Hebrews and he actually ended up killing an Egyptian, to protect an Hebrews. Because of this, Moses ended up fleeing Egypt, and went to the land of Midian.

I honestly thing Moses was planning to live out his entire life in Midian, never going back or worrying about his people. But that was not God’s plan.

Someone read Acts 7:30-34.

30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’

But God was done with Moses, and he appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. God speaks to Moses, tells him to take his sandals off, because it’s holy ground, and is like, “How dare you be ignoring the people in Egypt. You need to go to Egypt.”

If you remember the story of Moses, our lessons or the movies, you know this conversation wasn’t quite this simple or easy. Moses didn’t want to go to Egypt. He wanted his easy life. But God told him to go, and in the end Moses obeyed God and went.

Someone read Acts 7:35-43.

35 “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ 38 He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 41 At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices
    forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 No; you took along the tent of Moloch,
    and the star of your god Rephan,
        the images that you made to worship;
so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’

Moses went to Egypt to be a liberator, but believe it or not, the Hebrews didn’t accept him at first. They were like, “psh, what are you doing here. Who are you?” And the Egyptians also laughed at him, because they were the people in power and didn’t expect Moses to be able to do anything. But the part that hurt the most, was the fact that his own people didn’t really believ ein him at first.

But Moses made many signs and wonders, he lead them out of Egypt, and to freedom! Moses did all these amazing things, and then he went up Mount Sinai to talk to God and get the law, and Moses turned his back for like five minutes and suddenly all the people he just liberated and did everything for, like went crazy!

They wanted to go back to Egypt! They wanted to worship a baby cow they made from their own gold, instead of the one true God who saved them. They saw the signs and wonders, they saw it all, and instead the turned their backs.

This is part of Stephen’s point again. God gives us amazing things, and we can’t see it. We turn our backs and disbelieve.

Someone read Acts 7:44-53.

44 “Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, 46 who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,

49 ‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
    or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53 You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

Stephen reminds them of the time of the Tabernacle, when instead of a Temple they had a tent. But then Solomon built a beautiful temple—which as we studied later got destroyed. The Temple of this time period is the second temple.

And basically, Stephen calls out their obsession with the Temple. He’s like “God doesn’t live in houses! God lives everywhere!!!” The Temple as we’ve talked about, was a critical element of Judaism. They viewed it as the place where God lived. But when Jesus died, the veil was torn, symbolizing God doesn’t just live there anymore. He lives everywhere.

But then Stephen gets to the heart of his message, why he went through his whole history lesson. He says that the people of Israel today—the ones who brought him to the council and the ones in the council are being just like the patriarchs who sold Joseph into slavery, or the Hebrews who turned their back on Moses and wanted to go back to Egypt. That God has done great and amazing things in front of them, and instead they are turning their backs on them and persecuting the people God has raised up.

He basically is calling them idiots who are bad at following God.

Let’s see how the council responds to this.

54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

The council leaders are enraged. No one likes to be called an idiot, and they certainly don’t like to be compared to historical idiots who actively went against God. That’s not what these guys are about. They want to be good followers of God, and Stephen telling them that they’re not? It enrages them.

Stephen doesn’t see their anger, instead the Holy Spirit shows him heaven and the glory of God, with Jesus at his right hand. And he tells everyone what he sees—which makes them angrier.

They all rush him, grab him, drag him out into the city, and stone him. We’ve talked about stoning before—it’s literally means an execution where they throw stones at you until you die. And I don’t mean small tiny pebbles. I mean like big xeriscaping rocks. It would be like death by baseballs, except harder.

Stephen prays to Jesus while he is being stoned, and asks that Jesus not hold this sin against them, and then he dies. This makes Stephen the first Christian to die in the name of Jesus. He’s the first, but he’s not the last.

This section also introduces us to our first mention of a guy named Saul, who watched the whole thing. We’re going to talk about him a lot more in the future, but we’ll leave it there for now.

Peter Persists

Last week we talked about how even though Jesus was gone, he sent the Holy Spirit to empower the disciples. The Holy Spirits came upon the disciples and they became like they were on fire, wanting to preach the word and go out and spread to everyone the truth about Jesus.

So that’s where we’re picking up, with the disciples—particularly Peter and John—out preaching and spreading the word! Someone read Acts 3:1-10.

3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

So Peter and John go out to the temple at about three in the afternoon, and while they are there a man who can’t walk is carried in.

We’ve talked about before that being physically disabled during this time period was very hard. It’s not like today, where we have wheel chairs and accessibility laws to make sure that every person, no matter their abilities has an equal chance at a good and fulfilling life. During this time period, people with severe disabilities—if they weren’t rich or didn’t come from very rich families that would take care of them—basically ended up unable to work and became beggars. So this man is described as lame from birth—which means he hasn’t been able to walk since he was born. And basically, people would bring him to the gate of the Temple every day so he could beg for money, that was the only way he could survive.

When the lame man sees Peter and John, he doesn’t think of them as anyone special. He just asks for money from them. But Peter stops, looks at him, and is like, “Hey dude, look at us.” So the disabled man looks at them, expecting that Peter is going to give him something, but Peter is like, “Actually I don’t have money.” At this point I imagine the disabled man was just sighing like “Why are you bothering me then?” But Peter continues and is like, “Here is what I can give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk.”

It’s important that Peter heals the man in Jesus’s name. Peter is not Jesus—he’s not able to heal on his own. But with Jesus and the Holy Spirit backing him, he is able to heal this man.

Peter grabs the man by his right hand and helps him to his feet—the man can suddenly stand! The man can’t believe it! He jumps up! He stands! He walks! He enters the temple with them and he’s not just walking he’s leaping up high and praising God.

Remember this is a man who has been unable to walk since the day he was born. This is the first time in his entire life that he is able to walk.  He can’t believe it, and he’s so happy, he’s dancing and praising God.

Everyone sees him—and they all know who he is—this is a man they have passed every day for years. And they are completely stunned to see him able to walk, jumping for joy, and praising God.

Someone read Acts 3:11-19.

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. 12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

17 “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,

Peter sees all the people gathering to see the man he healed, and he uses this as an opportunity to preach at them, and spread the good news. He calls them out for being amazed. He’s like “How can you be surprised. God gave us Jesus—who did even better things than this—and he was rejected by everyone.” Peter calls them out for participating in the death of Jesus.

I want to touch on something here—there have been times in human history, where people who have called themselves Christians have blamed Jewish people specifically for the death of Jesus. Christians have used this excuse to persecute Jewish people, and to view them as evil people because they participate in the death of Jesus. And sometimes they pull out verses like Peter saying “You killed the Author of life” to support that.

But I want to be clear about something—it is not Jewish people’s fault Jesus died. And if you keep reading Peter’s speech, he makes that clear to. Jesus’s death was part of God’s plan. It is ALL of our fault Jesus died—even us today, who weren’t there at the time. Jesus died for our sins.

Peter is just calling these specific people out on their particular sin of participating in calling for Jesus’s death. But then he acknowledges that it was a sin of ignorance—they didn’t know the truth. He also says it’s not just their sin but also that of their rulers—which include non-Jewish people like the Romans.

Even Peter participated in Jesus’s death—by hiding and denying him. We are all to blame. No one is specifically more to blame than any other person.

Jesus died because of and for everyone, and because of his death, we all have a chance to repent, which is what Peter is calling them to here: to repent of their sin and turn to Jesus. 

Someone read Acts 4:1-4.

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them, 2 much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. 3 So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand.

Peter is out speechifying in the Temple. The priests, captain of the temple, and the Sadducees—a group of religious leaders—come out and are annoying by all this teaching. Remember these are the same guys who connived to get Jesus out of the way. They thought that by having Jesus killed, it would end this whole Jesus thing. That his followers would just fall away. Instead, here they are months after his death, and there is a crowd of people listening to Peter talk about Jesus.

So they’re not very happy about it—they try to stop it by arresting Peter and John. But it’s too late. The Bible says five thousand people heard and believed that day.

Someone read Acts 4:5-15.

5 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 11 This Jesus is

‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
    it has become the cornerstone.’

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus. 14 When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. 15 So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another. 

So all the religious leaders assemble the next morning in Jerusalem—they need to decide what to do about Peter and John. They bring Peter and John out of jail and are like, “How did you heal this dude?”

And Peter is basically like, “Have you even been paying attention? You are asking me how this guy was healed! He was healed in the name of Jesus who you crucified but God raised from the dead.” And then Peter quotes the Old testament at them, which I’m sure drives them insane—because these are the religious leaders—if anyone knows the Old Testament, it’s them.

The religious leaders are amazed by Peter and John—because these guys were just fishermen a few years ago. Where did they get this ability to speak and familiarity with the Old Testament? And the leaders recognized them as companions of Jesus. They also recognize the guy they cured—they can’t argue it’s a hoax. They’ve seen this disabled man begging at the gates of the temple every day for years. There is no doubt in their minds that he was lame, and now he is walking.

The religious leaders don’t really know what to do about this, so they send Peter and John out of the room so they can discuss the matter privately.

Someone read Acts 4:16-22.

16 They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it. 17 But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” 18 So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; 20 for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21 After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened. 22 For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.

Since they cannot deny what Peter done, they’re just like “Let’s just give them a warning and tell them to never do this ever again.” So they call Peter and John back in and are like, “You are not allowed to teach about Jesus anymore.”

Peter and John aren’t like “Okay, that sounds good.” Nope, instead they say that they have to listen to God before they listen to them, and they will not—cannot—stop speaking about what they have seen and heard.

The leaders threaten them again, but they don’t really have a way to punish them what with five thousand people who support them, so they let them go.

None of these warnings stop the disciples from preaching and sharing God’s word. Someone read Acts 5:12-16.

12 Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. 16 A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

This is the point where we start calling Jesus’s disciples, apostles instead in the Bible. The big difference between those two words is that we use the word disciple for when they are actively following Jesus, and we usually use the word apostle for after Pentecost, when they are filled with the Holy Spirit.

So despite the warnings from the priests, the apostles do not stop teaching and healing. The preach and teach and even more people become believers—men and women. They healed tons of people, in the Temple, in Jerusalem.

They won’t stop just because the high priests asked them to. They are going to keep going, because it’s what God wants them to do.

Someone read Acts 5:17-24.

17 Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, 18 arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” 21 When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on.

The Temple leaders are not happy about this, so they have the apostles arrested and thrown into prison. But God does not want the apostles in prison, so he sends an angel to open the prison doors and send them out. The angel tells them to “Go to the temple and tell everyone the message.” Basically God is affirming them, saying they are doing a good job, to keep doing the good work, and don’t let things like prison stop them.

So the apostles go to the temple and keep teaching.

The high priests don’t know about this, so they go and call a council and want to have the prisoners brought before them—except there are no prisoners! The prison is locked, the guards still there, but they opened the doors and no one was inside. The guards and the priests don’t know what to make of this, they don’t know what to think.

Someone read Acts 5:25-32.

25 Then someone arrived and announced, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” 26 Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

27 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Someone tells the council that the men they arrested are back at the temple and teaching again!! So they send guards to go get them, and stop them. They grab the apostles again, and bring them before the council.

The high priests are like, “Dudes, we told you not to do this! We told you not to teach and yet here you are! What is wrong with you?”

And Peter is like, “We have to obey God rather than humans. God raised up Jesus, and brought him to give us repentance and forgiveness. We witnessed all of this, and we cannot and will not stop.”

Mic drop, Peter.

Someone read Acts 5:33-39.

33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time. 35 Then he said to them, “Fellow Israelites,[a] consider carefully what you propose to do to these men. 36 For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; because if this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”

They were convinced by him,

The council members hearing this are furious. They basically think Peter has come in here and disrespected them right to their faces. They want to kill him. But a Pharisee on the council named Gamaliel stands up and is like, “Hey guys, let’s take a breather and think a minute. Remember our history. Remember how many people in the past claimed to be somebody, got some followers, and then later when the leader died their followers disappeared. This is the way of life and history. Because things started by men, they end. And if it does happen to be by God—nothing we can do will be able to stop it. So why don’t we just let history run it’s course and determine if this thing is real or not.”

Someone read Acts 5:40-42.

40 and when they had called in the apostles, they had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. 42 And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.

So the council calls the apostles back in. And this time it’s not just a warning and they let them go. They have them flogged. That means they have them whipped and beaten—a very painful punishment. Then they’re like, “Remember, stop talking about Jesus!!” And they let them go.

The council members ten high five each other like, “Yeah, that’ll stop them. Now they know there is real punishment for their crimes. They will stop.”

But do the disciples stop?

No. They don’t. Every day in the temple, at home, in the streets, everywhere they go, they do not stop to preach and teach and tell everyone that Jesus is the Messiah.

A few months ago, Peter was hiding in fear because Jesus was arrested—afraid to be arrested and beaten to. He denied even knowing Jesus—three times! But now here we are, and Peter is not that man anymore. He has been arrested. He has been flogged. And he will never stop claiming Jesus, claiming he knows him, and explaining the truth.

That Jesus has come for everyone, that he is the way, the way to repentance, forgiveness, and God.

Unfortunately for the disciples, arrests and floggings are not the worst of things that are going to come there way, which is why we will see next week when we study Stephen.

Pentecost

We spent all of last year talking about Jesus. We spent most of the year talking about his ministry: how he healed people, how he met people where they were at, talked to them, and offered them forgiveness for their sins. He offered people who society had ignored a way back to God.

Jesus came to be the Messiah, but people didn’t understand what that meant. They thought Jesus came to restore Israel as an independent kingdom, back to the glory days of King David. And instead of raising an army and becoming a military liberator, Jesus was arrested, went to the cross, and died.

It was unexpected. His followers did not know what to do. They scattered and hid, uncertain what the future held.

Then Jesus came back! He was alive! We talked about this a little bit last year—the days after Jesus was raised from the dead. He appeared to his followers, and he spoke to them.

Let’s turn to the book of Acts! It’s the fifth book of the Bible. Someone please read Acts 1:1-3.

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.  4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

The author of Acts was Luke—who also wrote the Gospel of Luke. So Acts in a lot of ways it Luke Part 2. In the gospel, Luke covered Jesus’s life and teachings, but Acts covers the history of the early church—the struggles and trials the disciples had as this movement called Christianity grew and spread. Being a Christian back then wasn’t like it is now, here in America where Christianity is the majority religion. It was this new uncertain thing, where they didn’t have a Bible or anything written. They just had the words of the disciples and other people who followed Jesus. And the disciples didn’t always agree with each other about how to live out Jesus’s teaching! They’re going to have arguments and debates throughout the entire book. We’ll also see that not everyone was happy about Christianity coming on the scene. Jewish leaders were unhappy, but Christianity didn’t just stay in Judea, it spread to other places, like Rome, where people were also suspicious of their beliefs.

Acts covers these early times, when there was no written New Testament, when no one exactly knew what it meant to be a Christian, and Luke records it all for our knowledge, so we can see these early days of how the faith developed after Jesus left.

Acts starts at the very end of Jesus’s story, with Jesus having been resurrected and meeting with his disciples. For forty days, Jesus appeared after his resurrection. He told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to stay, because, something was coming. He said that John the Baptist had baptized with water, but soon they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit!

Someone please read Acts 1:6-11.

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

We already talked about Jesus’s ascension, but I wanted to cover this specific passage describing it, because we see despite everything that’s happened, despite everything the disciples have seen, they still don’t get it! Here at the moment of ascension—when Jesus is returning to heaven—they ask him when he will restore Israel as an independent kingdom. Despite everything, they still think that’s what Jesus is about—to be a political Messiah who restores Israel.

Jesus tells them that it’s not their job to know what is to be—that’s God’s job. But he tells them they will receive another kind of power—not political but the power of the Holy Spirit, and they will be his witness over the entire earth, spreading the word of Jesus.

Jesus is leaving, but he’s not leaving them alone! Jesus is God, but so is the Holy Spirit! Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are all parts of the trinity, they are equally God. So Jesus may be leaving, but God is not leaving them.

And then Jesus ascends to the heaven, and the disciples just stare up at the sky. Then two angels appear to them and are like, “Stop staring up into heaven like some bozos! Jesus will return from heaven when he returns.”

Someone please read Acts 1:12-14.

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

After Jesus ascends, the disciples go back to Jerusalem. They go to an upper room where they are hanging out—the eleven remaining disciples plus Jesus’s female disciples probably like Mary Magdalene. As is pretty usual for the Bible, Luke doesn’t take the time to name the women. Not because they weren’t important to God, Jesus or his ministry, but because Luke was a human and prone to human failings. And as we’ve discussed at length, during this time period, it was pretty normal for men to ignore women and not really think they were important. But they were. They were also disciples and followers of Jesus. And they too were there, watching and waiting for the next sign from God. Jesus’s family is also there—his mother and his brothers. All of them are gathered, and they decide to constantly pray until the day comes that Jesus promised.

They don’t really know what to do. Jesus was their leader, and now he’s gone! Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem, so that’s what they’re doing, waiting and praying, hoping for some sort of direction. They wait and wait and wait, and it comes! Someone read Acts 2:1-13.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

The disciples are all together, and suddenly from heaven there is a loud sound of wind and it fills the entire house. And then it’s like flames of fire appear among them, the flame resting on each of their them! This is the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and they are filled with it! With the power of the Holy Spirit they begin to speak to each other in multiple languages. We call this day Pentacost.

Jewish people from every nation live in Jerusalem, and at the sound they gather and look at each other like “What is happening?” Because people know of the disciples, they know them. They know the disciples are mostly from Galilea, and if they speak more than one language it’s probably like Aramaic and Greek, not every language of the Roman empire. But everyone who hears them hears the disciples speaking as if they are speaking their native language. It’s crazy and seems impossible and most of them are like “How is this happening? What does it mean?” And other people are like, “These guys are drunk!”

Someone please read Acts 2:14-21.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
        and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
    and signs on the earth below,
        blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
        before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Peter steps up and begins to speak, addressing everyone in this crowd and he’s like, “Nah guys, we’re not drunk! It’s only 9 am! No, we’re not drunk, we are filled with the spirit as it says in the book of Joel.” Remember this crowd is all Jewish, so quoting the Old Testament to them would mean something.

So he quotes Joel where it talks about how God will pour his Spirit on people, and their will be prophesy, visions, and dreams. That even the lowest of society—the slaves—will have the spirit. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

But Peter is not done talking, he has a whole speech! Someone read Acts 2:22-28.

22 “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says concerning him,

‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
    moreover my flesh will live in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
    or let your Holy One experience corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
    you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

Peter goes on to tell them about Jesus—a person all these people would know about, because Jesus’s death was not that long ago. But he’s like “Hey remember Jesus? Remember all of his signs?  Remember the wonders he did? The healing and the teaching? Remember how he was killed—how we all participated in killing him? But this was all God’s plan! And God raised him up and freed him from death, because it was impossible for even death to keep God down!” And then Peter quotes more scripture—but particularly quotes David, who remember is like the greatest King of Israel ever and everyone there definitely knows who Peter is talking about.

David talked about how God wouldn’t abandon his soul to Death or let the Holy One experience corruption. Peter is saying this passage is about Jesus! That Jesus was the Holy One!

Then Peter continues his speech!

Someone please read Acts 2:29-36.

29 “Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,

‘He was not abandoned to Hades,
    nor did his flesh experience corruption.’

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at[g] the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35     until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

36 Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter goes on to say that David—the greatest king of their history—died and was buried, and is still in the tomb to this day. David knew that God had promised him a descendent would be on his throne forever. And Peter is making that connection for everyone—that Jesus is the Messiah to be on his throne forever. Jesus is God, raised up, and they all say it! David did not ascend to the heavens, but Jesus did! And it’s Jesus they’ve been waiting for all of this time.

I just want you guys to appreciate that Peter giving a speech like this is crazy—Peter was a fisherman like three years ago, and here he is speechifying to all the people! But it’s not just his power and words, it’s the Holy Spirit speaking through him.

Someone please read Acts 2:37-42.

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The people listening here all of Peter’s speech, and it cuts them. And they are like, “Peter, we believe you, but what should we do about it?”

Peter is like, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus.” Repent is a very churchy word so I want to make sure we all know what it means—it means to express sincere regret or remorse about a wrong doing or sin. To repent means to see the wrong things from your life and admit they are wrong. So he wants the people to repent of their sins and be baptized, and then their sins will be forgiven.

And lots of people listening they do just that they repent! And they become followers of Jesus—Christians!

This is the first time the disciples are doing anything without Jesus—the first time they’re trying to do stuff in his name—and they’re doing a great job! But they’re not alone. They have the Holy Spirit filling them and supporting them.

This is just like us today. We don’t have Jesus here walking and talking amongst us. We have the Holy Spirit who guides us and can fill us. Just like the disciples. And the Holy Spirit can help us lead others to God.

Someone please read Acts 2:43-47.

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

With the power of the Holy Spirit, the apostles are able to do signs and wonders in the name of Jesus—just like they were able to do with Jesus. This was the very beginning of Christianity, and they had no churches, no formal elected elders, or services. Instead it was just a group of people held together by their common beliefs. They sold their possessions and took the money to help each other. They shared their meals and they spent time at the Temple and they spread the love of Jesus.

And day by day the number of Christians grew and grew. Jesus is in heaven, and it’s the followers of Jesus who are now leading. But the power of Jesus’s message is still spreading and growing, and people are still drawn to him!

Because God is still with us, God is still working, and people are feeling the power of the Holy Spirit.