Blog Archives

April 24th, 2022

4/24/2022

In this Sunday, the joy of Easter continues in a very real way. It is called the Second Sunday of Easter (and not the First Sunday after the Resurrection of Our Lord). And it is still very appropriate to say things like ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!’

We have been looking at Christianity from the perspective of the book of Acts. It is there that Christianity was described as being ‘spoken against everywhere’ (28:22b), and there have been some very good examples of how that very bad thing was done. Now with an opposite emphasis, we will be looking into how Christianity is very much supported in the book of Acts.

This support may be seen in the text from Acts for this Sunday. The First Reading is Acts 5:12-20 (although you may hear the text through verse 32). A supportive statement regarding Christianity is made by the angel of the Lord, and this is the first appearance of an angel of the Lord within this book. The apostles had just been put into jail, and an angel of the Lord comes to them and tells them this: ‘Go, and standing, speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life (verse 20).’

I would not be surprised if that statement struck you as being somewhat vague. The apostles were not to speak the words of JESUS, but that words of ‘this life’.

It should be hopefully clear that what is NOT to be discussed is the best life that the apostles have when they give their lives over to Jesus. The temple was an important place, and it was where God and man could come together. Jesus is where God and man CAME together, and then he went to the cross for our salvation.

It is interesting that, near the end of the longer text from Acts 5, in Acts 5:28, the statement is made by the high priest to the apostles that ‘…behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring upon us the blood of this man (verse 28).’ Here he does not say that they have filled the temple with their teaching. He also does not say the name of Jesus. But he DOES say that Jerusalem has been filled with this teaching. The teachings of Jesus seem to be overflowing from the temple.

It cannot be clearer than the fact that Jesus died and came back to life is central to Christianity. The angel of the Lord points at that. And the high priest does as well.

It is interesting that the importance of words does not appear in the text when you look at the previous verses. In Acts 5:12 it is said that many signs and wonders happened among the people through the HANDS of the apostles. In verse 13 it also says that the people MAGNIFIED them. In verse 15 it also says that sick people were being brought out onto the streets so that the SHADOW of Peter might fall on some of them. And, finally, in verse 16, it says that ALL were healed. In contrast to all of that, the angel points to ‘ALL the WORDS of this LIFE’. Words are important to God.

It may also be helpful to see where the previous use of ‘life’ is mentioned in the book of Acts. Last week, all the uses of a word in Acts were examined, but this time, only the previous use of ‘life’ will be mentioned. This happens to be another time where the name Jesus is not mentioned.

In Acts 3:15, Peter is giving his second sermon, right after a lame man was healed. And he says this: ‘And you killed the prince [or ‘author’] of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we ourselves are witnesses.’ Jesus is called a prince of life, and he gives words of life. It is HIS life that is important and not ours. And this life comes to us through HIS words.

In this post-pandemic time, we can easily lose focus on Jesus and begin to focus on ourselves, on our words, and on our life and death. But Jesus was dead and came back to life, and that is an important order to remember. And we continue to use Jesus’ words. The joy of Easter certainly continues. And the book of Acts ends with these very positive words, with St. Paul ‘proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, unhindered (28:31).’

0 Comments

April 16th, 2022

4/16/2022

0 Comments

This Sunday is finally here. It is Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord. Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! It certainly is a special Sunday, and a huge number of Christians still meet together on Sundays because of what our Lord did on that special Sunday a long time ago.

For a significant amount of time I have been writing about St. Paul’s trip to Rome as it was laid out in Acts. And now, finally, he is there. Praise the Lord!

In some of the last few words in the book of Acts, there are some details given, and one of them is that Christianity is described as being ‘spoken against everywhere’ (28:22b). It was a good thing to look into how Christianity was spoken against in the book of Acts, and it will be a good thing, in the next few weeks, to look into how Christianity is very much supported in the book of Acts.

A positive ending is given in the last few words of this book. St. Paul will certainly have his say in the epistles of the New Testament. But the book of Acts ends with these words, with St. Paul ‘proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, unhindered (28:31).’

How positive is this summary? How helpful is it? It may be helpful to see where these words were used previously in Acts—although looking at the Gospel according to Luke would also be helpful.

This is almost like looking up the words in a dictionary. Now only the two verbs will be studied, ‘proclaim’ and ‘teach’. And the first one will deserve more focus, since the second is somewhat vague with the phrase ‘teaching the things concerning’. Some of the verses below have been summarized, so you may wish to look up some of these verses in a Bible. The words in bold are the basic things that were proclaimed.

PROCLAIMING (kingdom of God):
8:5       Phillip in the city of Samaria proclaimed to them the Christ.

9:20     In the synagogues Saul immediately proclaimed Jesus, that this one is the Son of God.

10:37   John proclaimed a baptism.

10:42   Peter relates that he was commanded to proclaim and solemnly witness to the people that Jesus was the one designated by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

15:21   Moses, for many generations, had the ones in each city proclaiming him.

19:13   It is said that Paul proclaims Jesus.

20:25   Paul was among the Ephesians, proclaiming the kingdom.

TEACHING (Lord Jesus Christ):

1:1       In the Gospel according to Luke, there was a record made of the things that Jesus started to do and teach.

4:2       Peter and John were teaching the people about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

4:18     They were teaching ‘upon the name of Jesus’.

5:21     The apostles are teaching again in the temple.

5:25     The apostles are teaching the people, while standing in the temple.

5:28     The apostles were charged not to teach ‘upon this name’, and they are accused of having filled Jerusalem with their teaching.

5:42     The apostles did not cease to teach and evangelize the Christ Jesus.

11:26   Barnabas and Saul met with the Christian Church at Antioch for a whole year and taught a considerable crowd.

5:1     Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers that circumcision was necessary for salvation.

15:35   Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and evangelizing the word of the Lord with many others.

18:11   Paul ‘sat’ [this basically means ‘stayed’] for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among the people of Corinth.

18:25   Apollos was instructed in the Way of the Lord, and burning in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila took him and more accurately explained to him the Way of God.

20:20   Paul did not keep back the beneficial things, to announce and teach to the people in Ephesus.

21:21   The zealous Jews were informed that Paul was teaching a rebellion from Moses throughout the nations that they should not circumcise their children and walk according to their Jewish customs.

21:28   Paul is accused of being one who is teaching all men everywhere against the people and the law and the temple.

I hope it is obvious that both words, ‘proclaim’ and ‘teach’, are strongly connected to Jesus. Two notable exceptions that start things in a different direction are Moses being proclaimed and that some people were teaching the brothers that circumcision was necessary in Acts 15. But that is an important chapter that eventually points to the importance of the gospel and the gospel accounts. And that connection could be investigated some other time. For now, we rejoice that Jesus is proclaimed quite clearly. Alleluia!

0 Comments

April 9th, 2022

4/9/2022

0 Comments

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, and it is also known as the Sunday of the Passion. And we will be looking at the last step of St. Paul’s important—and predicted [See Acts 23:11]—journey to Rome, and that has been laid out for us in the book of Acts.

This journey was a long journey. And at times it was also a fearful one. At one point in time on this journey, ‘all hope was lost [See Acts 27:20]’. How much worse could it get?
Last week we looked at the start of Acts 28[:1-10], when Paul and the people on the ship ended up on the island of Melita, and although the people there were called ‘barbarians’—a word with some negative connotations—these people were extremely helpful, and the group was on their way again.

Then comes Acts 28:11-14. And what follows is a somewhat-literal translation:

And after three months, we set sail in a ship, having wintered in the island, an Alexandrian, with an ensign, Dioscuri. And having been landed into Syracuse, we remained three days, from there, taking away, we arrived into Rhegium. And after one day, having come up a south wind, on the second [day] we came into Puteoli, where, having found brothers, we were entreated with them to remain seven days; and thus, we went into Rome.

You are probably not familiar with most of the place names that are given here. The most familiar city (after Rome), of all the places listed above, is probably Alexandria, and that word is somewhat hidden in the text, since it is connected to the ship that was involved. But of all the unfamiliar words given above, the ‘ensign’ or sign of ‘Dioscuri’ is probably the most unfamiliar. And it is probably the most important.

You may wish to look at what other translations do with this word. The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature gives us a little help here. The word ‘Dioscuri’ means ‘sons of Zeus’. This word refers to the twin gods of Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Zeus and Leda. In the sky they are the Gemini constellation. What is quite interesting is that they were known as ‘the Savior Gods’. And these gods were thought to be helpful to sailors [Revised and edited by Frederick William Danker; third Edition; Chicago, Illinois, USA: University of Chicago Press, 2000; page 251].

Did St. Paul go through all that difficulty on his first ship, hear all the wonderful promises of God, and then see the false gods on this new ship, and think that he could not step foot on it because of that ensign? Obviously not. But did he trust in those other gods to save him now? I think you know the answer to that question.

The writer of Acts did not need to include this small piece of information about this Alexandrian ship. But he did. And it is also interesting that the rest of the trip goes well. Is that because the twin gods were helping him? I think you know the answer to that question as well.

The true God promised at the beginning that St. Paul would make it to Rome. And some people called it a miracle that all the people on that ship made it through that terrible storm. But God did not make himself incredibly obvious through it all. And the number of miracles in the book of Acts seems to be fewer as we get farther along in the book.

But how something looks does not determine the actual number of wonderful and amazing things that God is doing. And God, the Father, certainly does not want to overshadow the greatest miracle of his Son on the cross, his payment for all sin. He is the TRUE Savior God.

0 Comments

April 3rd, 2022

4/3/2022

0 Comments

This Sunday is the Fifth Sunday in Lent, and next Sunday will be Palm Sunday. And during our Lenten journey, we have been looking at St. Paul’s extremely important journey at the end of the book of Acts, and we are getting extremely close to the end of that journey. St. Paul will stand before Caesar and be a witness in Rome (see Acts 23:11). After the terrible storm that Paul and his companions endured in Acts 27, they find themselves safe—saved, as it were—and they find out where they actually are. Next week, we will be looking at their arrival into Rome. But this week we find St. Paul coming up against what might be called a slight problem; he is called both a murderer and a god.

What follows is a somewhat-literal translation from Acts 28[:1-10], starting at the point where St. Paul and all the other people in the ship made it safely to land. Now this is just a reminder that the angel of God said to Paul: ‘God has granted to you all the ones sailing with you.’ But what about Paul himself?

And having been thoroughly saved, then we knew thoroughly that Melita the island is called. And the barbarians showed not the ordinary philanthropy to us; for having fastened a fire, they took in all of us because of the rain standing over and because of the cold.

And Paul, having gathered together a certain number of sticks and putting them on the fire, a viper, having come out from the heat, fastened on the hand of him. And when the barbarians saw the beast hanging from the hand of him, to one another they were saying: “Certainly a murderer is this man, whom, having been thoroughly saved from the sea, the justice did not allow to live.”

Therefore, he, on the one hand, having shaken off the beast into the fire, he suffered no evil. They, on the other hand, were expecting him to be about to swell up or to fall down suddenly dead. And for much they were expecting, and beholding nothing unusual happening to him, having changed their minds, they were saying him to be a god.

And in around that place, were lands to the prominent one of the island, by name, Publius, who, having received us, three days friendly lodged.

And it happened, the father of Publius, by feverish attacks and dysentery being afflicted, lying down, to whom Paul, having entered and having prayed, having put on the hands to him, cured him. And this happening, the rest in the island, having illnesses, came up and were healed, who also with many honors they honored us, and putting us out [to sea], placed on us the things for our needs.

Another litotes (a double negative) comes near the beginning of this section when the group’s extraordinary kindness is mentioned. And this double negative (‘not the ordinary’) helps us so that we do not focus too much on these people. It certainly becomes easier not to focus on this particular group when they are called ‘barbarians’, but that may simply be a designation for a group of people who do not speak the Greek language. (How biased is that?!)

God granted to St. Paul the rest of the people on the ship. But what about Paul? It was necessary for Paul to stand before Caesar. This was a promise that Paul would visit Rome when he was still alive, since he would STAND before Caesar. How Paul actually gets the rest of the way will be slightly unusual, and we will look at that next week.

Earlier in the book of Acts (14:11-18), St. Paul had the same problem of people calling him a ‘god’, so this is nothing new. And Paul will have none of this. Much was probably said by him to the people of Melita, and it probably is quite similar to what was said in Acts 14. He certainly does not want people to focus on him (see especially Acts 14:15).

Within this section of Acts 28 there is a great contrast between being saved and being killed. And God is intimately involved with that contrast. If we are not to focus on the ‘barbarians’, or on St. Paul, what we have left is a gracious God who keeps his promises. He is also a God who kills and makes alive with his law and his gospel.

0 Comments

A Sabbath Day's Journey

April 24th, 2022

April 16th, 2022

April 9th, 2022

April 3rd, 2022

Archives