Sermon on the Mount X

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites I

Matthew 6:1-4.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 11, 2024.

Chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount clearly moves on to another main point.  Jesus has been looking at the teaching of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of his day, and showing how it fails to fulfill the Law.

Now, Jesus moves to exposing the problem with the apparent “righteousness” of these “hypocrites.”  However, more than exposing their problem, Jesus shows his followers how to live out true Kingdom righteousness.  Whereas the previous point showed the lack of love for others in their teaching, this point will show the lack of a true heart for God in their righteousness.

In fact, what Jesus shows here is at the root of the common problem that religious institutions tend towards corruption.  If their teaching is superficial, i.e., has no heart, so their righteousness itself is also superficial.  It is generally not for the glory of God.

Jesus will look at three areas of spiritual matters: charity (acts of mercy), prayer, and fasting.  It is not by accident that prayer is at the center of this point, and at the center of the whole Sermon on the Mount.

Today we will focus on the acts of mercy that are often called charitable deeds.

Let’s look at our passage.

The way of righteousness (v. 1)

Though Jesus does not use the word “way” here, it an important theme throughout the Old Testament, and the work of Messiah.  John the Baptist details this when he comes forth as the voice in the wilderness that calls for the way of the LORD to be prepared.  At the end of this sermon, Jesus will point to the “narrow way.”  This is essentially following the teaching of the Messiah, Jesus.

We also know that Jesus is talking about their “righteousness” in this chapter because of his words back in Matthew 5:20.  There is a question in the manuscripts in verse 1 on whether it says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds…,” or if it read, “Take heed that you do not do your righteous deeds…”  The manuscripts that are older and more reliable actually split about 50/50 on which is original.  The difference is not significant, but if the proper word is “righteous deeds,” then this verse serves as an up front description of what is wrong in the following three areas of righteous deeds.  I believe that is most likely and it would also create a clear tie back to the earlier recognition that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

In truth, deeds of righteousness is the larger category of which charitable deeds is a subset, just as prayer and fasting are other subsets of this larger category.  Historically, these were so close that “righteousness” was often used to refer to them as a synonym.

Let’s tie this into our role as imager of God.  If we will listen to Jesus on this point, we will be able to properly image God the Father to the world around us.

We should also recognize that charitable deeds is not just about money.  It literally means an act of mercy.  If we use the Good Samaritan as an example, you will see that the most important thing that he gave to the ambushed man was his careful attention.  Everything that he did from that man flowed from a heart of compassion, mercy.

Jesus gives us a command.  “Do not do your righteous deeds before men…”  However, instead of putting the imperative upon the verb, i.e., “do not do…,” he puts the imperative on the verb “take heed!”  The effect of this is to intensify the imperative.  Jesus commands us to take up this area of our life and pay close attention to it.  It can be translated as: “beware,” or “Be careful.”  We need to spend time thinking through this any time we go to do an act of righteousness.  In the book of Deuteronomy, this kind of language generally points to an area of sin that we need watch out for or we will fall.

Thus, we are told that our intention must never be about other people seeing us.  If you do that, then you will have no reward from God because He knows that you are not doing it for him, but for them.  We see this in the story of the widow’s mite.  The motive of the rich man will only be rewarded by the adulation of the crowd.  What about the widow?  Most people who saw her probably contemptuously looked down on what she was doing.  Even when she did it in public, she was not in danger of doing it for the praise of man.

Messiah corrects them in their charitable deeds (v. 2-4)

Let’s be clear up front that we are not talking about salvation as a reward for our “righteousness.”  Before we come to Christ, our righteousness is as filthy rags.  However, when we come to Christ in faith, we are now saved.  Yet, through his teaching and with the help of his Holy Spirit, we are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ, and even fulfill the Law.  We are enabled to better image God the Father to the world around us.

Of course, walking out the righteousness of Christ is wrapped up in our salvation.  Our salvation in Christ is the foundation upon which we walk forward.  If I don’t keep my eyes upon Christ, and worse, I begin to resist and rebel against the Holy Spirit, then I can harm my own faith in Christ, even to the point of walking away from him.  Thus, on one hand, we can never merit salvation through walking out the righteousness of Christ.  Yet, on the other hand, if I become discouraged and walk away from Jesus, then I can forfeit it.  So, the one is integral to the other.  He has saved me, and that stirs up the desire to image him to the world.

We notice in verse 2 that Jesus describes a trumpet being blown when the hypocrites are going to do a charitable deed at the synagogue or on the streets.  It is unclear whether this was literally being done, or if it is an apt symbol of what they were doing.  Regardless, whether literal or metaphorical, it does serve as a great symbol of a person trying to draw attention to what they are about to do.  They do things that “trumpet” their deeds.  Of course, this doesn’t just happen in religious works among religious people.  The secular world is full of trumpeting one’s own goodness.  But, God’s people should be different.

The point is that they would not give, or do an act of mercy, without having a mechanism by which to draw attention to it.  Why?  It is because they want to be seen by men so that they will receive some kind of glory from them.  If we think of all the inner vices that Jesus referred to in working through the six case studies on the Law, they lust for the attention and glory that people will give them.

It is easy to despise those who give great sums of money in order to get their name on a building when we don’t have enough money to do the same.  The problem is not that they have money, and it is not that they even give it away.  The problem is the intention of the heart is all pointed towards people and not God.  In fact, not all people who give large donations do what we are seeing in these verses.

Essentially, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that most likely does not have much money.  He is telling them that these rich scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, might appear to be quite righteous, but most of their hearts are not right before God.  They simply lust for the glory of people.

We people are too quick to give glory to others.  Of course, we are not God and cannot see the motives of people’s hearts.  However, that is exactly why we should be careful glorifying the righteous deeds of others.  We are all too ready even to trumpet for them, and to continue to trumpet long after the deed has been done.  This is not about judging them, but recognizing that we do not know the true value of what they have done.

All of this is couched in a negative command.  We are not to draw attention to our charitable deeds.  More importantly, our motivation for giving must not be driven by the recognition we could get from other people for being so righteous.

This brings up the greater issue of why we should give charity.  Notice that Jesus just assumes they will do it.

As I said before, the word basically means “an act of mercy.”  It emphasizes that you do not owe a person anything, but you are touched in your heart (actually deep in your guts) for them.  You have compassion upon them.  In prayer before God, and with the knowledge of my resources, I determine in my heart what I am going to do. 

However, we need to be careful of thinking that God needs to give us a particular number- not that He can’t do that if He wants.  However, He actually wants you to become like Him.  That means your love and compassion needs to be expressed by you.  Perhaps, you could have done more, but what you did was good, if it was done for Him.  An act of love is and act of love. 

Imaging God is at stake here.  No one is more compassionate and giving than God.  Our charitable giving needs to be out of a desire to be like God in this world by helping others.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be about a desire to get God to bless you more in this life.  God is always blessing us.  Why do I crave more?  As God supplies in your life, respond compassionately to the world around you with your time, energy, help, and even giving. 

At the end of verse three, Jesus gives us the command in a proverbial form.  I believe this is all about counteracting our inner desire, even lust, to be recognized by people for our charitable deeds.  All proverbs can be abused.  I’ve heard some justify not telling another family member what they are doing because we are not to let our left hand know what the right hand is doing.  However, verse 4 clarifies exactly what Jesus means.  Do your deeds in secret.

The right hand was typically the hand of giving to others.  Yet, we should recognize that the left hand belongs to the same body.  So, this may actually be saying something that is going on internally within us.  When we give, we should not give a second thought to what a good thing we are doing.  We should not even judge our own works as too how good they are before God.  We should simply do them and move on.  Don’t get a big ego over it.  Don’t even internally trumpet your goodness.  This will only have a corrupting influence in your heart.

Of course, Jesus is not creating a law here, and if someone finds out that you gave a charitable donations, then God will be angry and punish you, or simply not give you a reward.  It is actually quite hard to give mercy to another person without at least them knowing.  Should you hide such things from your spouse?  I don’t think Jesus is trying to create an environment where we are hiding things from our spouse.  The point is to be taken simply, and at face value.  Make your aim to please God and to show His love to others.  Pay close attention to your motivation, the desire that is motivating you.  If you will do this then the details will become immaterial.

Let’s end with looking at the rewards for both the hypocrites and for the followers of Messiah.

The hypocrites are rewarded.  However, it is not by God.  God allows them to have whatever glory people are giving for such things.  They simply get what they were looking for.  God doesn’t owe them anything because it wasn’t done for Him.

Yet, there is a trap in their giving.  The corrupting influence of the glory of the people will continue working in our hearts.  It will continue to corrupt until no good thing remains.  The word here for “rewards” can be used for positive or negative things.  Thus, it can take on the idea of punishment.  Perhaps, the glory of men is a punishment that God gives to the wicked.

How much charity is given out of wrong motives?  How much charity is given from hearts that hunger for something other than God?  Whatever you are hungering for (whether as a giver, or even as a receiver) becomes an idol, and to worship an idol is to become a worthless, vain thing ourselves.

We were not designed to hold up well under the glory of people (just look at the lives over time of those who have it). 

There is nothing wrong with giving honor where honor is due, but we need to be really careful.  We are a people who love to idolize others.  Perhaps, it has something to do with living vicariously through them, even being a part of the group that they came from.  Yet, the adulation of a crowd can never satisfy a heart that was designed to be satisfied by the One True God.  All other things fall short of His glory.

This brings us to the righteous who do their charitable deeds for the right motives and in secret (as best can be done).  Giving secretly leads to a reward from God.  The word “openly” is in question and is not found in the oldest manuscripts.  We should be careful of overemphasizing a reward in this life.  God is constantly blessing us in this life.  But, later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will emphasize laying up treasure in heaven.  Peter speaks to this in 1 Peter 1:4.  There, he calls it an inheritance reserved in the heavens.  If we live for Christ in this life, then He has a great reward for us in the life to come.  Our great reward is to be resurrected and inherit the whole earth with Jesus.  We will serve as the glorified, righteous administration of King Jesus.  It is not yet manifest what we will be, but when Jesus comes, we will appear with Him clothed in His glory!  Now, that is much better than screaming crowds of fallen people shouting our name!

Correcting Hypocrites audio

The Sermon on the Mount VIII

Subtitle:  Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God VI

Matthew 5:38-42.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 28, 2024.

Today, we continue our look at how Jesus expects his followers to approach the law.  Those blessed people who are following him will act and respond to life quite differently than others. 

These examples that Jesus gives are more snapshots of the kinds of things that the followers of Jesus will do.  They will do these strange things because they love Messiah and have followed him into the Kingdom.

They will be a people who are not internally surrendered to vice, but rather, they will be people from whom the difficulties of life seem to bring forth goodness.  How can it be that a sinful world could bring out of the righteous something good?  Yes, it seems impossible, but this is what Jesus is talking about.

Let’s look at the fifth area of the Law that Jesus deals with in our passage.  It is often called the Law of Retribution.  It deals with matters of personal injury, and how courts should rectify certain offenses, or how they are to make the offense right.  The general rule is to equate the harm done to another, unless there are circumstances that mitigate that.

In each of these 6 case studies in the Law, Jesus points us to the internal as more important than the external.  He points us to battle against the vice that seeks to overwhelm us and to choose the virtue, or righteousness of Christ, that we need to embrace.

This area will very naturally lead into the last case study on how we should treat our enemies.  This case study goes back one step and deals with how we become enemies with people in the first place.  There is always some infraction at the heart of it.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Law of Retribution (v. 38-42)

Again, Jesus does not spend a lot of time on what they are being taught by their teachers.  He simply gives a quote from the law, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  We will deal with this more in a second, but I will say up front that this phrase is used three times in the Law of Moses.

Before we go there, I want to remind us of Genesis 4 and the murders that happened there.  Cain kills his brother purposefully and out of spite.  Cain receives a gracious punishment from God. Later in that chapter, Lamech, from the line of Cain, kills a young man just for injuring him.  His speech basically presumes that the grace given to Cain should be even greater to himself.  He had killed a young man for injuring him.  Of course, we don’t know all the details.  Did the young man injure him purposefully?  Did Lamech purposefully kill the young man in rage, or was it a spur of the moment response in which he flew off the handle?

This is an important understanding of the “Old Testament.”  God actually starts with grace, not law.  The law came much later.  Without restraint, whether upon ourselves in a personal fashion or externally from laws of society, humans are capable of great evil in this area of getting justice.  A culture that is fixated on “social justice” does not realize just how much evil they themselves do.  I am not saying that justice is unimportant.  I am actually saying something about each of us when we are consumed with getting justice.  We tend to see every injury to ourselves by another in the worst light, and we tend to see every injury to another in the best light.  Our tendency towards selfishness and sin pits us against one another in a no-win game.  We will never see eye to eye following this path.

People can laugh about a society of one-eyed, toothless people, but this law actually served as a brake, or restraint, on overkill.  Lamech was injured, but he killed the man in return.  This is man in his natural sense of justice.  “If you harm me, then I will kill you.”  God wants justice, but He also knows that we need restraint when we are seeking it.  Yet, even this brake on our desire for justice falls short of what God desires from each of us.  The teachers are focused only on satisfying the requirement of equating punishment and infraction, rather than hearing the spirit of what God is saying.

Jesus gives us his teaching, and it starts with the main point, “Do not  resist an evil person (vs. 39).”  He then goes on to give four examples from the kinds of situations where this is an issue.  In short, the four examples flesh out what he means by not resisting an evil person.

So, what is meant by not resisting an evil person?  We should first recognize that the area of the law Jesus is talking about, i.e., eye for an eye, has to do with a context of personal injury from another.  The three places where this is quoted are Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Deuteronomy 19.

In Exodus 21, it pictures two men who are fighting.  Of course, they will probably give each other black eyes, and knock out teeth.  But, the Law is actually speaking about their tussle injuring a pregnant woman, causing her to go into labor and either having the baby prematurely, or it dying.  The point is not so much killing a child of the man who causes a miscarriage.  The point is about upping the gravity of your actions.  If I know that I will be held accountable to the consequences of a fight, I will exercise more caution in fighting.  At the least, we will clear the room of any pregnant women.

Leviticus 24 speaks of a man disfiguring a neighbor.  It doesn’t explain how that would happen, but we could see two men working together, and an axe head flies off of the handle.  Let’s say that it hits the other guy and gashes his face, or breaks his jaw and now it is crooked.  This is where this maxim is quoted.

In Deuteronomy 19, the context is the case of a person lying in court, bearing false testimony.  If such a person is caught, they are to receive the punishment that they were expecting the person that they were lying against to receive.

Notice that none of these situations picture a self-defense situation where someone breaks into your house and is threatening to kill your family.  It doesn’t picture a situation where the Philistines are attacking and mean to subjugate you as their slaves.  Neither is it picturing a situation in which authorities are exercising punishment upon someone who has broken the law, i.e., law enforcement.  It is a personal injury that happens in the course of normal life.  Someone has harmed another.

Now, let’s look at what is meant by “resist.”  To resist here pictures a person taking their stand in hostility in order to go to war against the other person who has injured them.  You are taking your stand against them as an enemy.

The word “evil person” means everything from “the person who caused the bad thing to happen (though on acccident)” all the way to a person who is a bad person themselves and love to do bad things to others.  However, Jesus may actually intend to bring up the worst case scenario, i.e., even when a person intends to do it maliciously.

The point is that it is our natural tendency to rise up to fight when someone has injured us.  Don’t make those who intend you evil your target.  Don’t rise up in the anger, rage, and vengeance that are so natural at that moment.  There is a deeper issue going on here and it has to do with what injury does to us spiritually.

We are called to be imagers of God.  When someone injures us, especially when they are maliciously evil, we are too quit to take them out.  In so doing, we rarely image God well.  James 1:20, “for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”  If I am not imaging God, then just who am I imaging?  Who was Cain imaging?  1 John 3:11-12a says, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.  This is not talking about Adam, but about the Serpent, the Devil, who was the first murderer.  In trying to get justice, we easily fall into imaging Satan, rather than God.  You become a vessel that is breathing out death and statements of vindictive overkill, rather than a vessel that is filled with life.

Jesus is telling us that, if we want to follow him, we need to go to war against that inner impulse to hate others and to seek vengeance upon them.  We need to stop targeting others, and start targeting the vices that too quickly rise up within us.

Of course, that does go for those who are on both side of the injury.  Jesus wants the other person to go to war against the things in their heart too!  Yet, I have to focus upon me.  We will both stand before God one day and give an account for whether we lived a life of targeting others (producing death), or we lived a life of targeting our own heart (producing life).

If you think this sounds like God doesn’t care about justice, then I have not been clear enough.  Of course, God cares deeply about justice, far more than we do.  He also cares about making it right.  Jesus hung on a cross for you and for them precisely because He cares about it.  Jesus is not playing games with this area of justice.  He is going for true justice, and none of us can survive true justice without the grace of God being provided for us.

The Law of Moses was sent to shut the mouths of those who think they are doing a good job being righteous.  We all fall short of perfect righteousness, and therefore, we are disqualified to “fix it” or get justice.  Our flesh is hostile to a true justice that bring forth true righteousness.  We are all in the same boat, and we are in need of God’s grace and mercy.

Let’s look at the first example that Jesus brings up in verse 39.  This is an insulting slap on the side of the face by another person.  In public or not, most people would be ready to go to war against another person for such a thing.  Jesus pictures his followers turning the other cheek.  Now, we know that his intention is not for us to literally present our other cheek, as if asking for another blow.  We know this because this very situation was done to Jesus during his kangaroo trial, the morning of his execution.

John 18:22-23 shows us Jesus being struck by an officer.  Does Jesus literally turn his face so that the guy can hit him on the other cheek?  What I mean is this.  Is that the thing that Jesus is really hoping to accomplish in us?  There is no mention of Jesus literally turning the other cheek.  In fact, his statement to the officer has a subtle rebuke to it.  “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”  Now, remember exactly who Jesus is.  He is the Word of God through whom all things that were made were made.  He could unmake this man with a single word.  Jesus may not physically turn his cheek, but Jesus doesn’t target this man as an enemy either.  Jesus remains in the vulnerable place, where potentially he could be struck again.  Jesus keeps focused on imaging God and helping the other person to image God better.

This brings up the greater subject of the incarnation.  In Jesus, God takes on a face that we can slap, and hands (feet) that we can nail to a tree.  He takes on a back that we can whip to the point of shredding the flesh.  He becomes a vulnerable human who can be killed.  How great is the love of God that we are called to image to the world?

The point is that the world is full of enemies because of such incidents.  It is no accident that the last case study in the law will talk about loving our enemies.  God does not want us to be enemies to one another.  We are all His creation, and He loves each of us.  We are to do everything we can to neutralize this tendency to be enemies with others.  If I respond in kind to every infraction against me, the enemy of humanity will win, and God’s Kingdom will be thwarted.  Of course, this cannot happen because God always makes sure that He has a remnant in every generation.  However, where will I be?

Jesus is calling us to follow him in this radical response to evil.  We are to fight that inner battle and resist being made into an enemy by those who act like enemies to us.  We are to love that person and stay open to God changing their heart so that they can be our brother.

We do not want to play into the devil’s hand, but instead, we want to do the work of Jesus.  If you think this makes you a weakling, then think again.  Jesus was no weakling.   You had better believe that Jesus is a warrior.  However, he has a different target than we do.  He is calling us to become a warrior in this battle against the sin in our own hearts.  We are to go to war against very different things than what humans normally do.

Love risks injury, and that injury not being “fixed” in this life.  When Jesus was on the cross, he knew that the injuries, which he suffered, were making it possible for these sinners who deserved death to be saved.  It didn’t guarantee it, but if he didn’t love, it would guarantee that they could not be saved. 

Can  you believe that the injuries that God allows in your life, may have a purpose, especially when they are never “rectified” in this life?  Trusting Jesus is never easy.  No weakling can do it.  However, when we choose the path of His love, we become part of a war for the soul of the other person.  Suddenly, you are fighting those spirits and powers of darkness that hold the person captive.  That’s what Jesus wants.  Don’t target the person, target the devil that has trapped them in anger, rage, bitterness, vindictiveness, et. al.

The second example has to do with lawsuits.  “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.”

People do not typically sue unless there is something that has happened.  You may not see it the same way as they, but there is an event nonetheless.  Jesus shows a response to lawsuits that is not about getting justice, or making sure everything is equated.  Rather, it is more important for the follower of Christ to be reconciled to the other person.  “You think I have done you wrong?  Here, let me make it right, and even throw something else on top of it, so that you will know that you are more important to me than things!”  Yes, the other person may be making a mountain out of a molehill.  Or, they may be unreasonable in their claim against you.  However, we are called to be more concerned about the relationship than the things we stand to lose.  We should never lose sight that God loves this person, and He wants me to love them too.

Notice that none of this is passive.  It is a person aggressively restraining their inner tendency to anger and vengeance.  This is the bait that Satan uses to fracture us.  He doesn’t just divide and conquer us.  He divides, steps back, and let’s us conquer each other (perhaps with an extra whisper in the ear from time to time).

Paul brings this up in 1 Corinthians 6:6-8.  Notice that Paul does not expect believers to let another believer cheat them.  He challenges them to have other Christians decide such squabbles between to Christians.  Yet, some of them were taking each other to the secular (pagan) courts.  Paul challenges them in verse seven, “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?”  By going to the secular courts, they were testifying to the world that the people of Christ can’t get along and need the world to settle their disputes.  Paul is challenging them to love the reputation of Christ above their own loss.  Contrary to that, they were actually leading each other into becoming bigger cheats and wronging each other.

This all needs to be approached out of love for one another and for God.  How much is Jesus worth to you? 

All of this begs the question.  How can Jesus expect us to do this?  As I said earlier, none of this is easy, and we have to work hard not to see these as superficial laws that we have to keep.  It does beg this question, and the sermon on the mount doesn’t answer that question.  However, Jesus does answer it in the end.  He would die on the cross and show us that the Father intends to use resurrection to “fix” all things, both spiritually and physically.  On top of this, Jesus would now send the Holy Spirit to take up residence within us in order to empower us to battle against sin in our hearts.  No, you can’t do this, but you cooperating with the Holy Spirit can!

The third example has to do with being pressed into service by an official (particularly a Roman soldier).  This would have  been something that the people of Israel had become used to, and that irked them greatly.  “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”

This is a classic environment where our underlying resentment, that God has given us unto the power of another, can cause us to hate them.  Roman law allowed soldiers and officials to press the people under their dominion into service.  Such service had limitations.  In this case, a soldier could require someone to carry his stuff up to a mile.  Now, Jesus is not setting up a new law where we simply carry it 2, and no more.  Just like turning the other cheek does not mean I can knock you out after you have slapped me twice, so I don’t carry the load two miles, but then throw it down and walk away.  It is about being different and responding out of love rather than contempt, anger, and frustration about their authority over us.

Yeah, the law obligated them to help a soldier for a certain distance, but Jesus wants us to be the kind of person that is not resentful, and willing to do more.  Love always goes beyond mere legal obligations.  Could there be a situation where a Christian could resist a soldier pressing them into service?  Sure.  Perhaps you are a surgeon who is on the way to do a surgery that is critical.  You can explain the situation and beg them not to force you out of love for the other person.  It is not the superficial details that Jesus is after, but the heart of why we do what we do.  The emphasis is on me choosing to carry an offensive thing, rather than some one else being hurt. 

Are we required to tell the Nazis where all the Jews are hiding simply because Jesus told us to help the soldiers?  Of course, you aren’t.  It is love for others that is to motivate us, and some situations are far trickier than others. 

How much of your brother’s baggage are you willing to carry?  I know.  This stupid Roman soldier is no brother of yours.  Yet, God loves him, and wants him to become a spiritual brother to you.  Perhaps we can see a metaphor behind this maxim of carrying the baggage two miles instead of one.  There is a song from the seventies that says, “He ain’t heavy.  He’s my brother.”  Can I carry the baggage of others farther than anyone would expect because I’m praying that God will soften his heart and help him to see Jesus?  Yes, we can, but the real question is, will we.

The fourth example is in the area of people borrowing from us, or asking charity from us.  “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”  In Luke 6:35, Jesus even tells us to lend without expecting payment back.  The followers of Jesus, people of the Kingdom of Heaven, are not to be trapped in a world of possessions being more important to us than others.  Yes, it is not right for someone to borrow our stuff and not bring it back.  Kingdom people don’t do that.  But, targeting them as an enemy will not fix the situation and help them become more like Jesus.  It will only make it worse.

The phrase “do not turn away” reflects how we can be hardened towards those who need charity.  In each of these, Jesus is asking us to stay vulnerable in some way so that relationship can continue.  We are to choose a path of love towards the other person.

Let’s be clear.  Jesus does not intend us to never say ‘No.’  Can you imagine parents operating as if they can never say ‘No’ to their kids if they ask for something?  These are not laws.  They are examples to help us to see the kinds of things that those who are following Jesus will do.  We will not be trying to protect our stuff, and money, by hiding from those who might ask us for it.  Instead, we will let love for the person form our actions.  We will let the Holy Spirit inspire us.

Anyone who has worked with people who are financially in a tough spot knows that the answer isn’t always more money.  However, we can also pick up an attitude of despising people who need help.  We can become more interested in protecting our outflows, than the welfare of the person.  Yet, a person’s spiritual welfare is just as important as their physical. 

Love is not an easy path.  It will tear out your heart at times and leave you feeling like you aren’t doing any good.  I once knew a man whose son had just been released from prison.  He wanted to help his son, so he gave him a job working for him in his shop.  Long story short, he caught his son stealing from his till.  What a heart breaking situation.  The answer isn’t to “turn the other cheek,” and pretend it didn’t happen.  Yet, it doesn’t need to be, call the cops and send him back to prison.  Love wrestles with carrying offenses, not because that is the end goal.  No, we carry the offenses in order to win a brother, a son, back to the truth.  Only the Holy Spirit can help us to know what to do in such specific situations.

The goal is not to meticulously follow the letter of what Jesus is saying, but to hear the heart, the Spirit, of what he is saying.  I think that the best way to boil this down is Romans 12:17-21.

“17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[i] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Vengeance is God’s job, and it doesn’t matter if I see it happen or not.  It is between God and them.  If I try to step into God’s job, I will not survive it.  It is too big a job for me, and will destroy me.  Verse 21 is a perfect description of what Jesus is getting at.  Don’t let the evil done by another overwhelm your heart with a desire to be evil back.   Instead, overcome their evil action by good.  Peter says a similar thing in 1 Peter 3:9.  “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”  In a sense, we are called to love others too much to be their enemy, and we are called to love God too much to dishonor His Image by hating them.

In both cases, Paul and Peter talk about the fact that God will deal with evildoers.  He will take vengeance at the right time.  Why does God wait?  He waits because He is not too quick to send people to the lake of fire.  He leaves room for repentance, just as He did for you.  Aren’t you glad that He did?  Still, if they never repent, they will get their comeuppance.  God will take care of it.  You won’t need to worry or help Him out by  taking justice into your own hands.

In fact, we often are blind to the fact that love is the ultimate weapon to tear down the strongholds of hurt and injury.  If we will focus on winning a brother rather than never being injured by them, then we will see the enemy of our souls thwarted far more often.  No, it isn’t a guarantee, but it if you don’t operate out of love, it is guaranteed that it will spoil your heart and your relationship with Christ.

If you want to target those who hurt you, then target them with the love of Jesus.  Take it as a personal challenge to win them to the Lord.  Love them by laying down your life for them, and leave retribution where it belongs, in the hands of the LORD!

The Law of Retribution Audio

The Acts of the Apostles 10

Subtitle: A Lame Man Is Healed

Acts 3:1-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 24, 2022.

In Acts chapter two, Luke describes a powerful scene, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and then a sermon from Peter.  We have this same structure in chapter three.  An amazing healing occurs, which provides a hearing of the Gospel.

Acts 2:43 stated, “Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.”  We have here one of those amazing wonders and signs done through the Apostle Peter.  It is the healing of a man in his 40’s who has never walked, but now he instantly is able to walk.  He was the beggar who was always at Gate Beautiful. 

This miracle was undeniable, reminiscent of the things that the executed Jesus had done, and was done through one of his disciples.  However, it provided a platform from which Peter could preach to the crowds in the temple.  Acts is invaluable because it cuts through almost 2,000 years of accreted tradition, and puts in front of us a sample of the kind of teaching given by those who walked with Jesus.

For context, this scene takes place at one of the temple gates in Jerusalem.  Peter and John are on their way to the temple and they are asked for money by a beggar.  The name “Beautiful” is not attached to any of the gates in any of the first century writings that we have.  Josephus does describe a gate made of Corinthian Bronze that was particularly outstanding from the rest.  This gate was called after the man who made the donation for its creation, Nicanor, and it was between the court of women and the area where sacrifices would be made in front of the temple building.  However, the story will end with Peter, John and the healed man in Solomon’s Porch, or colonnade.  This was a covered structure on the east wall.  A question then arises on whether it was actually a gate further out and they came into the temple compound? Or did they simply go back out to Solomon’s porch?  Ultimately, knowing exactly which gate this was will not change the story.

You can do some online searching to be able to see this.  Many models have been made over the years of what is described by those from that time.

Let’s get into the passage.

The lame man’s plight in life

We do not know this man’s name.  We do know that he had been lame from birth.  Because of this, he would be carried to the temple to beg for charity from the religious people who were going in.  This would be a “target-rich” environment, to be crass, since they are on their way to worship before God and more inclined to give.

People who are born with disabilities all have a similar experience physically and mentally.  However, some factors can be vastly different.  Do they have family, and does that family love and help them?  Is the family rich or poor?  Also, there can be other mitigating circumstances that make the situation worse or better.  We know nothing about these aspects of the man’s background.

We do know that he has been given a tough situation for life, and nothing about it is fair.  It just is, and that reality is physically, emotionally, and spiritually tough.

In all of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples, this man had never been in the right spot at the right time.  It seems impossible that he had not heard stories of a miracle-man healing people like him.  Acts 4:22 tells us that he is over 40 years old.  So, he has been carrying this heavy load for a long time, and, when there is hope that someone can do something about it, the man is executed.  How discouraged this man must be at the very least, if not angry at God and life in general.  However, God did care about this man and simply had another plan.

The lame man’s plea

It is 3:00 PM when the time of the afternoon prayers began.  Peter and John were probably meeting with other believers to participate in the prayers and then spend time talking and teaching in the outer court under Solomon’s porch. For them, these are exciting times. But the lame man was there that day begging for his daily food once again. 

The men who walked by him were not outwardly any different than others.  He had asked them for alms and was already looking for another person.  He doesn’t seem to know who they are and rejection is a large part of the experience of a person who has been reduced to begging.

Let me just point out that the Greek word for alms here is similar to the English word “charity.”  Charity technically means love, but can come to refer to the money that is given to another out of charity, or love.  Similarly, the word translated alms here is literally “mercies.”  The man is begging people to give him mercies.

Charity and mercy are an important part of being righteous.  The Law of Moses states in Deuteronomy 15:11, “For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’”  God calls His people to help the poor and needy, and yet also states that they will never cease from the land.  This lame man is not in a position to help the poor and needy because he is poor and needy.  Those who were in a position to help needed to demonstrate their righteousness through helping them.  This didn’t make them more righteous than the poor, but was how they could demonstrate faith in God. 

This begs the question.  How does a poor person demonstrate faith in God?  They do so by not letting bitterness and anger rule them.  They do so by praising God over the top of their difficult situation.  They do so by waiting on the mercy of God, which may never seem to be enough to our flesh, but in which our spirit can be content.  They do so by not looking to people to be their answer, but recognizing that God uses people.  They do so by remaining humble even though it isn’t fair.

The lame man praises God for healing

We don’t know if the Holy Spirit urges Peter to do this, or if Peter simply thinks, “What would Jesus do?”  Christ had given his apostles power to heal and cast out spirits when he sent them out in pairs to the towns of Israel.  There is no indication that Jesus took this power back.  As long as Jesus was with them, he led the ministry.  However, now Peter is in a similar situation that he has seen before, with and without Jesus.  He had been prepared for this critical transition from being a disciple of Jesus while he was physically on the earth, and being a disciple of Jesus while he is seated in the heavens.  Jesus may have been “dead and gone” in the eyes of the religious leaders, but through these twelve men, he was alive and well.

Peter first tells the man to look at them.  He has clearly made up his mind what to do.  This would be an important moment in the man’s life.  From this moment on, he would not need to beg at the temple.  He would know that God has seen him, and had provided an answer for him.  Peter makes him look at them first so that he would pay attention to exactly what is happening.

“Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.”  The apostles did not have any money.  They had not been working since they followed Jesus, and now Jesus was gone.  However, Peter knows that he has something else that he can give the man.  Peter has been given the spiritual gift of healing.

Now, healing in the Bible is not broken down into a science.  It doesn’t give us the 5 steps to securing your healing every time.

However, it does give some principles of things that impact healing.  Those who pray for others to be healed must have faith in God, and those who need healing must have faith in God as well.  Jesus himself did few miracles and healings in his hometown of Nazareth because most of them were full of unbelief that God was working through him (Mark 6:5).

It is also clear that some Christians have the spiritual gift of healing where others do not (1 Corinthians 12:30).  All believers have the ability to ask God for healing, whether for themselves or their loved ones.  This is the dynamic of a child asking a father for grace.  God sometimes answers such prayers.  However, there are people whom God particularly works through in the area of healing.  They will see more healings than Christians in general, and even spectacular ones.  However, the spiritual gift of healing is not a kind of power that they control.  The healing comes from the Spirit of God.  The gifted person is cooperating with the Spirit and acting as the mediator of the healing.  The Apostle Paul asked God to heal him of a malady three times and yet the Lord told him, “No.” 

This means that God’s purpose and will is involved in a way that cannot be boiled down to a simple, “God always wants to heal a sick person,” or, “God doesn’t do that anymore.”  There are seasons in God’s dealing with an individual, an area, a nation, and even this world.  There are seasons where God is granting more miracles and healings than normal, but there are seasons where God is seeing what we will do with the grace we have received.

I’ve noticed this dynamic with my own group, the Assemblies of God.  In the early 1900’s when this cooperating fellowship of churches began, it was quite common to see, or hear, of amazing answers of God through the miraculous and especially healing.  Over time, these healings became fewer and farther in between.  At the same time, a social dynamic was happening in this group.  Early Assemblies of God churches tended to be on “the other side of the tracks,” and its people were typically poorer.  Today, the Assemblies of God churches are by and large on “this side of the tracks,” and its people are more middle class.  I understand that these are rough generalizations, but we need to see that there is more going on here than just the faith of the individuals involved.  God is ultimately sovereign, and all believers need to keep humble before Him, rather than building a system that goes to one of two extremes- God always wants to heal, or God doesn’t heal any more.

I believe that God still heals people.  However, more blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.  We will be tested on both these things.  We must believe God enough to pray for healing, and yet trust Him if the answer is “No.”

The story is told of Thomas Aquinas, a theologian of the Church who as also a Dominican friar and priest.  He was in Rome and the pope was showing him an incredible display of gold, wealth, and precious jewels.  The pope then says, “Peter can no longer say, ‘Silver and Gold have I none!”  To which, Aquinas replied, “And neither can he say, ‘Rise up and walk in the Name of Jesus!”  This highlights an age-old problem of becoming rich, comfortable, and uninterested in the work that God is wanting to do.  God help us not to love the world and the things of this world to the point where we become irrelevant to His daily work.

There have been many charlatans with “healing ministries” through the years.  However, Peter is no charlatan who is looking for fame on TV and an empire that has a constant flow of money into its coffers.  Peter commands the man to rise up in the name of Jesus, while at the same time taking him by the hand and pulling him up.  This took a lot of faith on Peter’s part.  However, he was full of the Holy Spirit and in some way knew that this was God’s plan.

It is easy to think that the man asked for money, but received what he really needed.  This may be true, but on a deeper level than we think.  What good does physical healing do if a person does not become a believer in Jesus?  Think about the amazing medical technology that we have amassed in our world.  Who needs a healing Jesus when we can solve the maladies of the world through science and technologies developed off of it?  Of course, we can recognize that there are still sick people in our world today.  Technology is not yet the god that the world wishes it to be.  Second of all, what good does a perfect body that has never been sick do for the person who never puts their faith in Christ?  Yes, the person struggling with disease generally needs people around them that will help them, whether physically, monetarily, or both.  However, fixing the disease will only make a difference in their natural life.  Ultimately, we all need to come to faith in Jesus more than we need the troubles of our life fixed.  It is in the difficult times that we learn to trust more in God.

If I have money to give to a person who is in a difficult situation, then that is good.  If I pray for them to be healed, and God heals them, then that is even better.  However, if they do not put their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then neither of those things will truly benefit them.  No amount of charitable giving, or healings, can fix the need of a soul to have its sins covered by the grace of Jesus made available through his death on the cross.

Think of it.  These weren’t even atrophied muscles.  He had never walked for over 40 years, and yet strength came into his legs, ankles and feet immediately.  This man was blown away.  He wasn’t healed in the name of Peter, or a particular ministry, or church.  He was healed in the name of Jesus.  Peter made it clear that he was representing Jesus, not himself.

They enter into the temple praising God.  The word for temple here doesn’t mean the main building where the Holy place was.  Only the high priest could enter there.  It means the temple compound, the large, flat structure upon which the temple building was built.  It is unlikely that he had ever been able to go in.  His job was to beg at the gate, but now he has something to praise God about, and he is leaping, shouting, and making no small commotion.

How many times can we indignantly look at others who are entirely too bubbly about praising God?  Yes, sometimes people can be putting on a show, but how do you know?  And, is your heart in the right place?  Excited praise is not always pretense.  Sometimes God has done amazing things in a person’s life.  Sometimes a person has learned to see the amazing grace of God that they are swimming in despite the lack of a healing, or miracle, or money.

Let us recognize that God does care about the poor and the needy even if they continue to be so.  It is not typically the rich and the healthy who are jumping up and down praising God, if they even go to church.  There is a day coming when God will wipe away every tear and restore all broken things to a pristine condition.  Where will I be on that day? 

Let’s be a people who are not so full of this worlds comforts that we have lost sight of the heart of God!

The Acts of the Apostles 9

Subtitle: The Lord Increases His Church

Acts 2:40-47.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 17, 2022.

We have come to a point where the people listening to Peter are asking what they can do.  To which, Peter responds that they should repent.  This brings us to verse 40.

Let’s get into the passage.

Many people repent (40-41)

As Peter speaks to the crowd, people begin to repent from among them.  We don’t know the size of the crowd, but it appears that a large percentage who were listening repented. 

Yet, repentance is more than intellectually believing something.  They could not deny that something real was happening with these Galileans who had been speaking far-flung languages unknown to them.  However, repentance is believing something enough to act upon it.

We are told that Peter preached many other words.  However, the message essentially boiled down to this: You crucified the Messiah, but you can repent and save yourself from this perverse generation.

The word translated “perverse” has the sense of something that is crooked and twisted.  In the context of that which is good or bad, crookedness represents something that is ruined.  It will only make the problem worse.  It cannot fix.  I don’t believe there is a society on the planet today, or that ever existed in the past, that is without a level of perversity.  Even believers in Jesus are tempted to twist their ways just enough to fit in with the culture around them.

Here's a question.  Just how much twisting, perversity, can the Word of God take before it ceases to be True anymore?  God’s Word is either truth or it is not.  But, let us not pretend that it is something we can fashion, like clay, and somehow make it better.  No, the Gospel was fashioned by God to actually save you.  You cannot make it any better, period.

John the Baptist came out of the wilderness quoting Isaiah 40:3-4. 

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth…’”

Repentance is all about recognizing that the proud strongholds of sin in my life have to be thrown down into the deep valleys of hurts in my life, and a way must be made for the Spirit of Truth to come into my heart.  God is in the saving business and we will all see it.  The real question is will you see it happen to you? 

Road building is difficult work, but the Spirit of God will help all those who humble themselves and recognize their own perversity.  If you are stuck looking at the perversity of everyone around you, you will insulate yourself from hearing the powerful word, that “You are the man!”  You are the one who needs to repent, and until you do, then no one else matters, period!

We are told in verse 41 that 3,000 souls were added that day.  It is most likely that there were some who would not soften their hearts enough to have a change of mind and then do what required doing, that is publicly identifying with Jesus.  Some of them let that moment pass for one reason or another.  Yet, the mercy of God will continue to try and reach us until that last breath that we breath in this life.

The 3,000 new believers in Jesus were water baptized right away.  Even though Luke doesn’t say it is a water baptism, verse 38 shows a clear progression in what Peter says.  They should believe, be baptized, and then they will receive the Holy Spirit, which is called Baptism in the Spirit, or Spirit Baptism.  He is clearly not saying to believe, be Spirit baptized, and then you will be Spirit baptized.  Rather, he is saying to believe, be water baptized, and then you will receive the Holy Spirit.

Water baptism is to the New Covenant like circumcision was for Israel under the Old Covenant.  It is that outward expression that a person has become a part of the believing community in relationship with God.  In water baptism, a person makes a choice for themselves.  It is not about your parents being Israelites, and you being genetically predisposed to be an Israelite too.

It is unlikely that they all trekked 20 miles down to the Jordan river to be baptized.  It is most likely that they went to the public mikvehs nearby (small pools used for the cleansing ritual before going to the temple).  Perhaps they had already been ceremonially cleansed to participate in the Feast of Pentecost, but now they would go back and be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah!

That day “about 3,000 souls were added to them.”  I mentioned in a prior sermon that Luke is using language that makes a clear allusion back to Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:28).  God was signaling to them that they were in a similar situation with the New Covenant.  At the giving of the Law, “about 3,000 of the men of the people fell that day.”  However, at the giving of the Gospel of Jesus Messiah, about 3,000 souls were added to the people of God.  There is a reversal that is happening.  Israel under the law had become a fallen and plundered people.  The giving of the Gospel speaks to God restoring that which is broken and twisted, perverse.  The temple mount had become the site where the New Covenant with God’s Messiah was established.  If they wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they would need to connect to Jesus and follow his leadership.

It would be nice to see 3,000 people being saved all at once.  Perhaps, you have been to a stadium where someone like Billy Graham gave an appeal for people to accept Jesus as their savior.  These things do happen even today.  However, we should recognize that a lot of work went into preparing the people of Israel to hear the Gospel that day and believe.  There are seasons within the heart of an individual and with cities, nations, regions, and this world.  We cannot control the seasons, but we can faithfully do the work of spreading the truth of the Gospel, watering it, and then calling people to repentance.

Church life in Year One (42-47)

In these last verses, we get a snapshot of the early Church in that first year, even that first summer.  Down the road, their situation will change in many respects, but the many things that the believers did would not change.

There was an overlap of the new Church that Christ was building and the Old Covenant institution of national Israel and the temple.  It lasted almost 40 years.  Thus, they stayed in Jerusalem and met at the temple as long as they could.  Yet, the local of our meetings is not what is important.  It is what was being done.

There are four things in which Luke says they continued to be steadfast.  This means they were focused on these things and did not leave them undone, day in and day out.

First, they were steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine, or teaching.  The apostles of Jesus were the official representatives of Jesus.  They had spent years listening to the teachings of Jesus and helping him in his ministry.  Jesus himself had said that they would be the foundation of his “called-out-ones,” the Church.  We must not fool ourselves.  We cannot follow Jesus without hearing, learning, and obeying the teaching of the apostles, which is called the New Testament of the Bible.  Of course, our salvation is not based upon our perfection in following Christ.  Rather, repentance and faith become a new way of life for a true believer.  This is a relationship with truth, yes with propositional truth, but even more, with the One who is Truth.

They also continued steadfast in fellowship.  This word covers a lot of things, but it essentially speaks to having a portion, a share in something.  Like the children of Israel received lots according to their tribes, clans, and families, so the people of God have a portion in this new people of God.  This common lot creates a kind of camaraderie among the group.  In this case, it is a communion, a relationship, with God that infuses itself in our relationship with one another.

The also were steadfast in the breaking of bread.  Some see this as only a ritual reference to communion.  However, verse 46 says, “breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart…”  It is better to see this as speaking of hospitality, and visiting in one another’s homes.  The effect of fellowship was that they often ate together (clearly not all 3,000 plus in one home).  Of course, this would include times of celebrating communion, the Lord’s Table.

Fourthly, they were steadfast in prayers.  Prayer is both a private and a group activity.  Prayerlessness in our life will open the door for a fast retreat from the edge of a repentant life.  Compromise is nursed in the life of prayerlessness.  You start with establishing a discipline of talking with God alone, and from that foundation, also participate (perhaps lead) in praying with others.

May Jesus help his Church to be steadfast in these things today.

Verse 43 mentions that fear came upon every soul.  I believe that this is connecting back to a fear of the Lord for the believing community, and a fear of the unknown for those who weren’t believing.  Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It is that reverent, respectful fear that one has in the presence of someone who is very powerful.  God is not whimsical.  We do not need to fear Him like a child would fear an abusive parent.  However, picture the perfect parent who speaks to their child about what they shouldn’t do.  A child who doesn’t have some level of a fear of disobeying their parents has not become something better.  They are not on the path to becoming an Uber Mensch. They are actually on the path to losing their soul.

The matters of the Gospel of Christ are serious matters, eternal matters.  If we don’t take them seriously, then we might find ourselves perishing in the wilderness like many did while being saved from Egypt.  They perished over the top of the overflowing goodness of God.

There is an overall lack of a fear of the Lord in the American Church today.  You can trust God’s Word.  He means what He says, but do you mean what you say?  May the Lord stir in us a sense of the seriousness of the times that men have always lived in, but particularly today for us.

Verse 46 also mentions that signs and wonders were being done through the apostles.  This is in the same manner as Israel saw with Jesus.  We talked about this earlier in this chapter and will see many examples throughout the rest of the book of The Acts of the Apostles.  Signs and wonders get people’s attention and point them in a particular direction, but they are always to be kept in the context of God’s Word.

The Word of God warns us of lying signs and wonders that will be prevalent in the last days.  2 Thessalonians 2 specifically warns us that those who have refused to receive a love of the truth will embrace a powerful delusion that God will send through the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

God has spoken through Jesus and his apostles like he did through Moses.  For 2,000 years, Christ has been building his Church like the nation of Israel had been built up following Moses for about 1,500 years.  Yet, this house of the Church will be tried in these times just as Israel was tried in her times.  Are you ready?  Make sure you are embracing the truth of God found in His Word.

Verses 44-45 are often read as if communism is being promoted there.  The problem with communism is not the phrase: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.  The problem is the State forcing something that God’s Word calls us to volunteer.  Of course, the State is not actually altruistic in this matter.  Rather, it is merely being used to leverage society into giving it more and more power.  The early Church did not abolish private property and disperse it through the help of “scientific leaders.”  Rather, it pictures that as anyone had need, those who could help would do so, even if it required liquidating some of their assets.  It was voluntary and out of love, not forced.

We should recognize that this was a unique time.  There was a sense of awe in what God was doing, and people didn’t want to miss out on that.  Like Mary and Martha, they were choosing to listen to the apostle’s teaching each day in the temple.  This is as opposed to going to work, or some even going back home to the other nations.  The day would come when Paul would exhort among the Gentile churches, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV).  We need to understand the context of what is going on and what is actually being promoted.

Verses 46-47 point out that they were daily in the temple praising God, with the apostles teaching, no doubt.  It is easy to praise God when He is moving in such a powerful way and we are on the right side of it.  However, there would be difficult days ahead, and they would need to learn to praise God in those times as well.  Though God was demonstrating that He was with His people in power, He would not protect them completely from the persecutions of this world.

We don’t just praise God because He makes our lives have no problems.  We praise Him because, even in the tough times, He is a good Father who is watching over us for our good.  We don’t always know what God is doing completely, but we can be faithful to what we do know and trust!

The chapter ends with the point that the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved.  The Church was never intended to be a static group.  Like families are in the natural, new spiritual children always require everyone else to adjust, to make room, and to help them.  It is the Lord’s work that we are called to participate in doing.

There are still people whom God wants to save.  God needs people who are willing to live and speak the Gospel to them, including the message of repentance.  He needs welcoming spiritual mothers and fathers who will come alongside of young believers in order to help them face the spiritual battles that we all must face.

May God help us to see with the eyes of faith that there really is a harvest that even today is happening.  It may not be 3,000 in one day, but then again it may be.  It is our job to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be faithful in His leading each day!

The Lord Increases audio