The Acts of the Apostles 47

Subtitle: I Want to be a Christian in My Heart

Acts 11:19-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 16, 2023.

The work of God in which He moves on the hearts of people has a mystery to it.  Have you ever talked with someone about the Lord, and it looked like they were very interested?  However, when it came to the time of decision, they may have been indifferent.  Of course, they may turn around in days, weeks or years. 

Some times people who seem so hard can respond to the Gospel, whereas others who seem soft may not.  Saul of Tarsus received a two by four to the head, and it turned him around.  However, others can brush similar things off.  Yet, even in Saul's case, I have to think that God had tried to get his attention many times before, e.g., "It is hard to kick against the goads."  Perhaps, Stephen was one of those goads in the life of Saul.

This mystery of how God moves upon the hearts of people, and how they respond, will never be figured out by us.  It is clear that He does move from time to time upon individuals, families, towns, cities, etc.  However, there is a term that is used of places that have had the Gospel powerfully preached for a long time and they have become hard to the Gospel.  The term is "burnt-over," as in the burnt-over district.

Yet, God has a way of coming back around, even to hardened, burnt-over hearts.  Switching metaphors, it reminds me of how the ground hardened by the freezing temperatures of winter will heave during the spring.  That which had become too hard and lifeless becomes a place of life as the warmth of the sun affects it.

What is true in the natural is also true in the spiritual.  May God help us to remain faithful to individuals and our cities so that, when the opportune time comes around again, we will be found in the harness working with Jesus. 

We tend to fixate on people and personalities more than we should.  Yet, God is the One who is in charge of the seasons.  We can do our job, but we can't speed up what only God can do.

This should make us think about the coming of Jesus.  Yes, we want to be found faithful at the Second Coming.  However, sometimes the Lord comes by His Spirit to do a work through us.  He brings times of transition and change in lives.  We need to be working, ready to see what new thing He is doing, and participate with Him in that work.

In our passage today, God starts a season of openness to the Gospel by Gentiles. Let's get into it.

Believers in Jesus take root in Antioch (v. 19-22)

Luke begins to describe the rise of the church in the city of Antioch as an early center of activity for the followers of Jesus.  Antioch would stand with Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, as metropolitan hubs for the regions surrounding them.  It is going to be the church that begins a significant mission work to the Gentiles through Saul/Paul and Barnabas.

The Jerusalem church went through some tough years leading up to AD 70.  At some point, they obeyed the words of Jesus and moved across the Jordan to the city of Pella.  During this time, the Romans dismantled the city and pulled the temple apart stone by stone.

It wasn't until the 4th century that Constantinople became a major metropolitan city for the Church due to the Emperor moving his capital from Rome to there.

Of course in the 7th Century AD, Islam began to interfere with the communication and cohesion of these 5 cities.  Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch were the first to be impacted.  It wasn't until AD 1453 that Constantinople was taken over by Muslims.  Though these cities were important in the spread of Christianity, we should be careful turning them into a kind of Christian Mecca.  Our city is the New Jerusalem, reserved in heaven above.

In verse 19, Luke reminds us of the persecution that followed the martyring of Stephan in Jerusalem.  It is interesting that the man who was the tip of the spear for this persecution will end up being a major force for preaching Christ among the Gentiles.  This sparked a dispersion of Christians into the surrounding area.  Luke tells us that these Christians spread up the coast to Phoenicia (modern day Lebanon/Syria encompassing the cities of Tyre and Sidon), out to Cyprus (the large island off the coast of Phoenicia) and as far north as the Greek city of Antioch (modern-day Turkey).  Here is a link to a map to help you visualize.  These areas had large populations of Jews, which would be natural places of refuge for them.  Also notice that Tarsus (the place where Saul is from and is at currently) is across the bay  from Antioch (modern day Bay of Alexandretta).

We shouldn't treat this as an exhaustive list, but more of a help to see how the Antioch church was started.

Verses 19 and 20 have some Greek words that signal contrasting facts.  It is similar to our English expression "on the one hand."  Whenever someone says "on the one hand," you immediately know that there is something else will follow that contrasts what you say (i.e., "on the other hand").

Verse 19 gives us this first fact.  These scattered Jewish believers in Jesus were sharing the Gospel only with other Jews.

Why only Jews?  We could say it was only natural for them to tell Jewish people who have the most immediate interest in Messiah's appearance and work on the earth.  Paul in Romans 1 mentions that the salvation of Christ is to the Jew first and also to the Greeks.  We also see that Jesus spends 99% of his ministry in Israel and to them.  This is not a favoritism, but rather a recognition that they are the ones who had served God for over 1500 years.  It was only right that the Gospel should go to them first.

However, it is also clear that the early Jewish Christians had varying degrees of wariness to sharing the Gospel with Gentiles.  It took some time for the Holy Spirit to help them see the full extent of what Christ was doing in the world.

I would like to interject here that we do many things that flow out of our natural instincts, even as Christians.  I don't believe that they did a lot of hard thinking about the decision to only tell others Jews.  It simply flowed out of them naturally.  The same is true of us today.  This situation highlights why we need to be in prayer, in the Word of God, and seeking the empowerment and leading of the Holy Spirit.  We must be aware of this tendency within ourselves.  If it wasn't for God's help, we would be far more anemic in our efforts for His mission.

The contrasting fact comes to us in verse 20.  There was a particular group of believers that went to Antioch and they spoke to the Hellenists about Jesus.  Of course, they also would have spoken to Jews.  However, the contrast requires that we see Hellenist here, not as Jews who lived as Greeks, but in the larger sense of Gentiles who had Greek culture (not barbarians, etc.).  In short, Antioch is where a serious effort to share Christ with Gentiles began.  These Jews who were doing the sharing were originally from Cyprus and Cyrene, so they were probably Hellenistic Jews. 

Though Peter had shared the Gospel with Cornelius, we can also recognize that Cornelius was a military man.  As such, his life was not his own.  He went and did what Caesar desired.  So, Gentiles first heard the Gospel in Caesarea, but it is in Antioch that it truly began to spread among them.

It spread because the "hand of the Lord was with them."  This phrase always refers to visible acts of God.  Yet, the only thing described is people believing.  This doesn't mean that there were no miracles or baptisms of the Holy Spirit.  Rather, it is not emphasized.  I guess, we should not diminish the miracle of the Holy Spirit moving a heart to repent and believe.  This led to a "great number" who believed.  This would be at least hundreds, and perhaps over a thousand.

It is somewhat difficult to unravel the Lord's choice of Antioch, contra Caesarea, and to unravel it from the "accident" of the choice of these believers who happened to go to Antioch.  How much of it is God's sheer choice?  "I [God] want it to be this city." Or, how much of it was a mixture of him and these bold believers?  "O, you went there; okay, I [God] will bless that place."

It is actually not our job to unravel such mysteries.  It is best for us not to worry about that and simply be faithful to what He has given us to do.  We can tend to think in terms of, "God, please make it happen!"  However, it is generally more nuanced than simply Him making it happen.  Antioch had a huge move among the Gentiles, whereas other places did not.  This does not diminish what God did in the other places.  All people who are saved are important, and we should not think that God is "holding out on us" in any way.

We are told that word gets back to Jerusalem "of these things."  I don't think this statement if focused only on Antioch.  Rather, word comes back to Jerusalem of the spreading of the Gospel among Jewish communities, and especially the rise of Gentile believers in the newly established church at Antioch.

In verse 22, Barnabas is sent out from Jerusalem to go as far as Antioch.  This is that same Barnabas who donated money in Acts 4, and who helped Saul of Tarsus to be accepted by the Jerusalem church in Acts 9.

Barnabas would be able to check on the pockets of believers along the coast and encourage them in serving the Lord.  We don't know how long it took him, but eventually he makes it to Antioch.

Barnabas and then Saul come to Antioch (v. 23-26)

Luke sets up the context in which Barnabas and Saul become a ministry duo.  Their ministry together would soon spread throughout the region of Asia Minor and Greece.

Antioch will serve as a base of support for these two through prayer and financial support over the following years. 

It is good to launch out in ministry by faith, regardless of support that you can see.  God will provide in every way.  However, it is also good to launch out from a strong community of believers who are going to help support your spiritual and material needs.

When Barnabas arrives, he is blessed by what he sees.  The believing Jews and the believing Gentiles were doing a good job of serving Christ.  Thus, Barnabas simply encourages them to "continue with the Lord" Jesus, and to do so with "purpose of heart."

Much of the Christian walk is "continuing with the Lord."  This is not just an information download, but a walking with the master teacher by His Spirit.  Because it is relational, we are to be people of prayer, of the Word of God, seeking His Spirit, and walking out what we learn by faith.  This relationship with the Lord needs to endure, or persevere, all the things we face in this life.  All relationships can be boiled down to faith-filled perseverance in love.

When a person first comes to the Lord, many of their purposes need to be re-purposed with the Lord's help.  A prioritization that is led by Jesus is critical for we who are used to a prioritization led by our flesh.  This is easier said than done.  Praise God, that He has supplied His Holy Spirit to take up residence within us, enlighten us, and empower us to make His priorities to be our priorities.

We do not hear of any great miracles by Barnabas, but his ministry in Antioch is marked by the Holy Spirit and faith.  "A great many people were added to the Lord."  We can sometimes be overly focused on miracles, but as I said before, the salvation of a heart is itself a great miracle that we should not overlook.  Other miracles of healing, exorcisms, etc., are more signs of the presence of God.  They are not necessary in order to save people.  Yet, God in His grace often adds these graces to the move of His Spirit upon hearts.  May God help us to seek His Spirit and to do spiritual work by faith.

We cannot always know how He will bless what we do.  We must simply minister by faith.  In fact, we can be overly focused on making our ministry look a certain way.  "If I sound like this when I preach, I will be more effective."  Or, "If we sing this kind of song, people will really be moved by the Spirit."  Or, "If the lights are turned down and we light candles around the room, then we will see a move of the Spirit."  However, with such mentality, we can become guilty of manipulating people in the flesh.

No matter what, God blesses those who seek Him and share the Gospel with the lost.  Whether there is going to be a great response of salvation, or there is not, God's blessing is not dependent on either.  Those who are faithful in hard times (ala Jeremiah) are just as blessed of God as those who are faithful in the times of revival (ala Barnabas).  It our job to faithful to the Lord in the power of His Spirit wherever He has put us.

Luke does not get into why Barnabas suddenly feels the need to find Saul and bring him back to Antioch.  It could be a direct message from God.  "Go get Saul because I want him to help here."  However, it could be something as simple as this.  Barnabas is seeing great response.  Discipling people who did not grow up hearing and reading the Bible is hard work.  In this environment, Saul may have simply "come to mind."  Maybe, Barnabas suddenly thought one day, "We could really use a guy like Saul of Tarsus here."

Not every thought that comes into the mind of a believer is directly from God.  However, if a person is full of the Holy Spirit, involved in sharing the Gospel and discipling believers, seeking God's enabling and leading, etc., they should pay attention to thoughts like this.  No, I am not talking about thoughts that would be obviously sinful.  Rather, a thought that comes to mind and is in conformity with the righteousness of Christ.  This is a picture of how faith operates. 

Tarsus was about 100 miles away by land and about 70 miles by sea.  We are told that Barnabas sought Saul out, knowing that he was last headed to Tarsus.  Luke cruises over many questions about how long it took and whether Saul needed persuading etc.

Yet, we might wonder what Saul was doing in Tarsus.  I can hardly believe that he wasn't preaching and telling people about Jesus.  Did he have any success?  It is possible that the words of Jesus apply here. "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country."  It is sad to think that the great apostle to the Gentiles Saul would not have as much impact upon his hometown as other places.  Clearly, Saul sensed the Spirit of God in the appearance of Barnabas and the news of what was happening in Antioch.  He knew that God wanted him there.

Let us note that this is not a "pastoral search."  Saul would be joining Barnabas and many other gifted leaders in Antioch.  Barnabas is not the main guy in charge looking for someone to take them to the next level.  There is no sense of a single, "lead" pastor in the New Testament.  Such a concept was a later development that was not necessarily for the good.  Though God does work powerfully through certain individuals at times, it is clear that His intention is to raise up a group of elders, pastors, teachers, and prophets who work together to help the body of believers carry out the ministry of reconciliation with the lost, and ministry to other believers.

We should not see the church as a place to sit and soak up what we like.  Rather, we need to see our interactions as a place to grow in being used of God to minister ourselves.  We should be asking at all times, "God, what do you want me to be doing?"  We cannot stay as infants in Christ and accomplish much for the Kingdom of God.  In fact, when people are first saved, they need to grow spiritually.  Thus, they need a body of mature brothers and sisters, along with mature mother and father types to help them grow.

Verse 26 ends with the recognition that the believers were first called "Christians" in Antioch.  The word translated "called" clearly does not denote a name they called themselves.  It is actually used in business as a person who "makes a name" for themselves.  By their powerful preaching and ministry throughout Antioch, the believers had made a name for themselves, "Little Christ People."  Those who did not believe came up with a derogatory term that pictured them as inauthentic copy cats of this Jesus guy.

At some point down the road, the believers took the nickname as a badge of honor.  Yes, I may be a little Christ person, but I hope to grow up and be an adult Son of God that looks like Jesus!  Yes, I am a Christian! 

We are all called to take on the likeness, the image of Christ.  Today, the same Holy Spirit that worked through the Jewish believers, through Barnabas, and soon through Saul, works through us today.  At least, He wants to work through you and me to reach the lost.  May God help us to seek His Spirit and launch out in faith.  We know what He wants, so let's do it!

I want to be a Christian audio

The Acts of the Apostles 46

Subtitle: Peter Defends the Work of God

Acts 11:1-18.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on July 9, 2023.

There is a lot of water under the bridge within Christianity.  We can find ourselves in situations where some Christians are saying one thing about whether or not God is moving, and other Christians are saying the opposite.

This precise situation developed during spring this year at Asbury University.  Reports began to circulate that a revival was happening.  Some Christians were quick to embrace it.  However, other Christians began with a more stand-offish approach and generally rejected it as a true revival.

We could be tempted to think of this as a Wesleyan Holiness-movement/Pentecostal issue.  Those in this camp would naturally embrace it as a revival and non-Pentecostals would tend to reject it.  However, this happens even within the Pentecostal camp.  The Toronto "Revival" of the 1990's saw different Pentecostal groups for and against calling it a revival, even within the same denominations.

We should also note that it is possible to have true revival, but also have fake activity attaching itself to it due to pretenders.  This should cause us to pause and think about whether or not we should be pronouncing judgment upon what is actually happening in these cases.  Many Christians can find themselves maneuvered into making a judgment when they were not there and most of their evidence is from people who were either biased, or not there either.  This is called hearsay.  In many cases, there is no reason for me (i.e., the average Christian) to make a judgment, yea or nay.  Perhaps, if you were a pastor in the town, or a denominational leader whose churches were being impacted, you would need to do some due diligence and find out for yourself what is really happening.  Yet, most of us should simply pray that it really is a revival.  Ultimately, my biggest concern should be whether I am "revived" in the Lord myself, as opposed to worry about what is happening elsewhere.

We Pentecostals have a certain group of us who act like "roadies" of revival.  Whenever they get wind of something "happening" somewhere, they jump on a plane, in a car, etc. and head towards the latest report of the "fire of God."

This reminds me of the gold rush towns in the American frontier.  In fact, I grew up in an old gold town.  When word was spread that there was gold in Pierce, Idaho, over 5,000 people made their way into the hills of central Idaho, about 3,000 of them were Chinese.  Within short order, the easy gold would be played out, requiring much harder work for much finer gold.  Of course, then word would come around that there was gold in Elk River, and many of the people abandoned the area to go to the next rush.  "Wait, now there is gold in the Yukon!"  Many ran after the gold that was larger and easier to get.  However, it has been said that the Chinese, who stayed behind in Pierce and did the hard work to capture the "flour" gold after the rush had left, were able to take more gold out of that area than during the rush.

I don't believe that this is what God intends for His people, chasing after a rush of the Spirit.  Rather, in Scripture, we see a people who are seeking God and waiting upon Him for His seasons of refreshing.  Of course, this book, The Acts of the Apostles, was such a time of God's favor and refreshing.  

We are told that there will be much deception and confusion in these end times, and if I am chasing after every cry of "spiritual gold in them there hills," I will not spiritually mature in the ways that make me look more like Jesus.  I will then become fodder for the deceptions and confusion that will only grow stronger.

We should note that the Apostle Paul, in what he believed to be his last opportunity to speak to the elders of the Ephesus church, warned that wolves would attack the church from outside, and perverse men would rise up from among their ranks.  They, we, would need to be vigilant to help protect the people and teach them to be wise, discerning.

Our cynical side can scoff.  How can I know?  In our spiritual immaturity, we may feel like God has not made it clear enough and the confusions are too many.  However, Christ promises those who follow him that he will be with us to the end of the age.  He promises that the Spirit of Truth will guide us.  We need to be a people who are growing in our knowledge of God's Word, and in our experience of the work of His Spirit.  Don't settle for anything less than the real thing.  May we be a people who are being revived daily as we lean upon the Spirit of God in our current situations.

Let's look at our passage.

Peter returns to Jerusalem  (v. 1-3)

We were told at the end of chapter 10 that Peter stayed with Cornelius and crew for a "few" days.  However, the word is far more indefinite than the word "few."  It would be like saying that he stayed for a certain number of days.  It could be days, it could be weeks, yet, probably not years.

Peter has been on the road for a while encouraging believers, and yet the Holy Spirit had also done some amazing miracles through him.  Aeneas was healed of paralysis at Lydda.  Tabitha was raised back to life in Joppa.  The miracle of people believing upon Jesus and being saved occurred everywhere he went, and now, Gentiles have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Peter now returns to Jerusalem.  Have you ever noticed that other people can be busy spreading rumors and a case against you when you are focused on doing a good thing for the Lord?  Many times the people who do the most to spread a rumor were not there.  They heard a story from someone who heard a story.  They can also have an ulterior motive, which leads them to focus on things that were not the main thing.  They may even home in on things, magnifying them above what is the truth.  We should be very slow to make any judgments from such "witnesses."

Verse one tells us that the apostles and the brethren of Judea had heard the news about the Gentiles receiving the Gospel.  However, there seems to be a particular group among the believers that has been developing along with the Church as it grew.  This group is referred to as "The Circumcision" by Luke and Paul.

During this transitional period, the Church was finding it bearings in regards to what Church would look like.  Would they continue on much the same way as before, obeying the Law of Moses, but believing in Jesus?  The apostle Paul was strongly against such ideas from day one (see Galatians 2:5).  Others like The Circumcision group were the opposite. We do not have an idea what percentage they were of the group of believers or of the apostles themselves.  However, Peter represents that man in the middle who wants to obey God, but is unsure what God is doing in this regard.  He starts out cautious, and yet, God faithfully teaches and leads him to the truth.

As Peter comes into Jerusalem, we are told that those of the circumcision group contend with him over his contact with the uncircumcised in Caesarea.  I believe that Peter would be meeting with the church of Jerusalem and, in that context, a subset of the group forces this issue to be front and center.  To quote their accusation against Peter, "You went into uncircumcised men and ate with them!"

It is quite telling that they do not mention the faith of the Gentiles at Caesarea.  They don't mention that the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles just as He had upon the Jews at Pentecost.  It may be that this part of the news never travelled to Jerusalem.  Regardless, they are focusing on the fact that Peter had dinner with these Gentiles.  Why?

I mentioned previously that the Law of Moses shows that there are things that are holy and things that are unholy.  We most likely have a knee-jerk definition of "unholy."  It is easy to see it as something that is evil, but that is not what it means.  To be holy is to be set apart for God's purposes.  Those who are unholy are not set apart for God's purposes.  You can picture a bowl in the temple.  It is holy, i.e., set apart for God's purposes in the temple.  The holy priest that uses a holy bowl within the temple for God's prescribed worship is serving God's purposes.  He no doubt has a bowl back at home, which his wife uses to serve him soup.  That bowl is not holy, i.e., unholy.  It is only for common purposes.  It would be just as wrong to use a common, unholy bowl in the temple as it would be to take a holy bowl home and use it for your own common purpose.

This brings up the issue of clean and unclean.  A holy person, or object, must be ritually clean to do whatever God's purpose is.  The holy thing can become unclean for various reasons.  In that unclean state, the holy thing cannot be used for God's purpose.  However, there is a mechanism by which the holy thing or person can be made clean again .  Thus, uncleanness can come from something sinful, or from something that isn't.  A case in point, if a family member dies and you help to bury them (note: that this is not a sinful thing to do), you could not participate in a temple ceremony until you had gone through a cleansing ritual.  Contact with Gentiles was similar.  Gentiles were unclean and often did "unclean" things (sinful, or not).  Many traditions had been built up over the years to avoid such uncleanness, and one of them was to not have close contact with Gentiles (like going to their house and eating with them).

This would have been ingrained into the Jewish person from childhood, and would not come easy to most.  It is amazing that through Jesus, the Gentiles were now considered holy.  I don't mean they were all now saved, but that they were all now set apart for the holy purpose of God.  They need to then come to Jesus and be cleansed from their unclean state so that they can now serve God in Spirit and in Truth.  

This is the issue that they are having difficulty accepting.  Those of the circumcision are stuck in this old construct of Gentiles being unholy and unclean by virtue of not being Jews.  They want to make salvation and full access available only to those who obeyed the Law of Moses and believed upon Jesus.

Peter explains himself (v. 4-18)

I titled this sermon, "Peter Defends the Work of God."  It is better to see it as an explanation of what God did.  I mean, who can defend God?  God is His own defense!  Yet, we can engage with one another over what God is doing, even persuade one another in how to understand it.

If God is doing something, all of us should refrain from resisting and fighting against it.  It just seems to be a no-brainer for a Christian to support what God does.  We could also simply be apathetic to it.  I know that this is not what God wants for us.  We need to be supportive and joining God in what He is doing.  That is the best case scenario.  Of course, the age old question, "How can I know?"  We will come back to that.

Peter simply gives a chronological description of the reasons for his actions.  Yet, I think it is important to pay attention to the categories of "evidence" that God uses to convince Peter.  God was giving Peter some facts, or evidence, so that he could understand the God-given conclusion.  This is important.  It was not man's natural ability to reason and make good conclusions that brought the Church to embrace Gentiles who believed upon Jesus.  Rather, God used the fact that we can reason and see conclusions to show Peter what was right.  From the very beginning of this issue, we will see that God lays the conclusion on the table up front.  "What God has cleansed you must not call common (unholy)."

The first evidence is the vision that he had at Joppa.  In this vision, God used the same issue, but with the area of foods.  Just as Gentiles could defile a person, so certain foods could defile a person.  Jesus had not only made all people holy unto the Lord, but he had also made all foods holy unto the Lord.  The message of the vision was clear.  If God makes something clean, we must not try to say it isn't clean.

Peter also tells them that the vision was repeated three times.  God only needs to say something once, but He knows that this is a tough issue to swallow for Peter and other Jews.

I would categorize this as personal teaching, or leading, from God's Spirit.  Of course, Peter is not a new Christian.  He is an apostle hand picked and trained by Jesus Christ in order to help establish the faith once and for all delivered to the saints in that generation.  Peter's experience is quite objective to him, but we label it subjective because no one else saw it.  There is nothing wrong with subjective personal experience, but we must be careful in this area.  It needs to have other confirmation.

In verses 11-12, Peter states that the three men from Caesarea show up immediately following his vision.  At this point, Peter has another personal leading directly from the Spirit of God.  Peter has demonstrated an ability to know when the Spirit of God is speaking to Him.  The Spirit tells him that men are arriving to ask him to go with them.  He is told to go with them "doubting nothing." 

We should also note that the timing of this is also part of the evidence.  It is said that "coincidence" is not a kosher word.  Sometimes coincidence is only that, a coincidence without any common causality behind them.  However, it is part of the evidence.  They show up immediately after he has this strange vision.

We should also note that Peter wisely takes some unbiased witnesses along with him on this journey of faith.

Peter also tells them about the angelic appearance to Cornelius in verses 13-14.  The angel is the one who told Cornelius where Peter was and that Peter would tell him the words by which he and all his household would be saved.  Notice that this turned out to be correct on both accounts.  This has three aspects to it.  Cornelius had his own personal leading directly from God.  Yet, it also has a corroborating affect upon what God is teaching others.  Thus, I will label this confirming personal leading of another person who is a believer in God.  We also have knowledge supplied by God that proves true.

In verse 15, Peter explains that the Holy Spirit came upon them when he began to preach to them.  Peter could not deny what he saw happening to these Gentiles.  I would call this an objective work of the Holy Spirit.  Though Peter and the men who were with him could not deny this was the Holy Spirit, there are always people who will deny the undeniable.  Yet, for those who had an inkling of the Spirit of God, it was obvious.  No one had coached these Gentiles on what "should" happen.  Peter had not even described or talked about the Promised of the Father, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.  This is a sovereign action of God through the Spirit.

I believe that verse 16 is critical.  We should note that Peter does not speak "ex cathedra," that is, from the chair of his position.  He is simply a man being led by the Spirit of God.

We don't know why God used Peter greatly among his fellow Jews.  Why wasn't it John "the beloved?"  From a standpoint of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth, Paul was the most used of God than any of The Twelve. 

It is not about position, or an office, or who received the baton from whom.  It is about the Spirit of God working in and through people to accomplish the will of God.  Peter clearly knows this in this moment.

He reminds the group that the Lord Jesus had told him (and others) that "John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1:5).  Of course, we should add the testimony of John the Baptist in Mark 1:8.  He referred to Jesus as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.  On top of this, we could add the many verses throughout the Old Testament that emphasize Messiah's salvation going to the Gentiles.  An example is found in Isaiah 49:6.

"Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

I would categorize this evidence as the Word of the Lord.  Subjective experiences that are of God will line up with His Word. 

Some may say that we are no longer in that transitional time.  Yet, we do have transitional times as an individual where God starts to do something different in our lives.  In those times, it is critical that we know how to hear from the Lord and to be led by Him.  We don't want to be fighting against what God is doing in our life, but yielding and serving His purpose.

This same dynamic happens in families, nations, even republics, and the whole world.  It is interesting that the world is describing this time globally as a time of transition.  It is important that we be connected to the Spirit of God, and hearing from Him.  Otherwise, we may find ourselves being deceived by the spirit of this age.

We may complain that one person says this and another says that.  How can I know?  Yes, this is true.  There are all kinds of voices "out there."  Jesus never sent us to the voices out there to find truth.  He said that He would lead us by His Spirit.  You need to know for yourself.  You can hear what other think, but you won't do what God wants by following what others think.  You have to hear from the Lord yourself.  At the most, the thinking and experiences of others can only be a confirmation of what God is doing in your heart and mind.

Verse 17 gives the logical conclusion to so many lines of evidence.  "Who was I that I could withstand God?"  Peter knows that he truly is nobody without Jesus.  In and of ourselves we are all nobody to stand against God.  And yet, there was still a call of God on Peter's life.  That call doesn't bless everything Peter thinks.  No, it is, "Peter, come follow me!"  Peter had enough time being rebuked by the Lord that he knew he didn't want to fight God on this.

There are too many in the Church who are elevating their thinking over the work of God.  We must be careful.  Be careful of thinking such and such simply because a great person says we should think a certain way.  Some have developed a cult-like adherence to men (living or dead) who may be smart people, but they are nothing without the Spirit of God, especially in resisting the Spirit of God.  We can even be guilty of using the words of men who followed the Holy Spirit in their day in order to resist following the Spirit of God in our day.

This is the call to spiritual maturity.  God gives the truth to these Gentiles through Peter, but this doesn't mean they forever have to go through Peter to know the truth of God.  We need to come to know God for ourselves.  This takes time.

Why would I want to resist the work of God?  If you heard that God was working in your town, or even your family, wouldn't you be excited?  In fact, God is doing something today.  Maybe I have fallen asleep to what He is doing.  Maybe I am not sober enough to recognize it.  Worse, I may not even have a spiritual pulse.  Yet, God in His grace wakes the sleeper, sobers the intoxicated, and raises the dead to new life!

Jesus had baptized these Gentiles in the Holy Spirit.  Who was Peter to forbid them to be water baptized?  The answer is simply no one.  He had tried rebuking Jesus before, and he was not going there again.

More than this, who was Peter to continue to try and keep a distinction between himself and them because they were not circumcised?  It was clear that God did not treat their uncircumcision as a mark of impurity.  Of course, again, he is no one.  And, to do so over the top of the leading and teaching of the Lord by His Spirit, would be rebellion.

You need to know where it comes from when people who are resisting God's work despise His work in you.  In John 9, a man who had been blind from birth is healed by Jesus.  He is later interrogated by the Religious Council.  They pressure him to "Give God the glory!  We know this man is a sinner!"  He then tries to explain to them how what Jesus did had to be of God.  This only made them angry.  “ 'You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?' And they cast him out."  Notice that this man is a nobody in their eyes, and they are quite the somebodies.

The blind man accepted that he was a nobody.  "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know.  One thing I do know; that though I was blind, now I see."  This man had a personal experience with Jesus that no amount of cynicism, bullying, or theological treatises could take away.  He was a nobody who had been touched by Jesus.  At that point, he became greater than all the "great" learned ones of Israel.  He sees Jesus as Messiah, and they want nothing to do with Jesus.  What would you rather have: the touch of Jesus or the approval of such men?

To their credit, the men became silent.  We know from the other passages in the New Testament that some of them would still chafe at this.  However, they had nothing to say.  The conclusion was clear.  "God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

We can focus so much on what people are doing (and that can be important), but it is better to focus on what the Lord Jesus is doing by His Holy Spirit.  We are not the Apostles laying down the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints.  However, like Peter, we can do our small part.  Peter simply went with the men, heard the story of Cornelius, and began to preach.  God did the heavy lifting because Peter and Cornelius did their small part.  It wasn't Peter, it was Jesus.  It isn't you, and it isn't me.  However, it is us doing our small part, in the harness with Jesus!  Don't you want to be a part of what God is doing?  Pray and ask God's Spirit to help you first see, and then courageously step forward to work with Him in the field.

There are times in our personal life, in the life of our family, our church, or our republic, where it is critical to discern what our Lord desires of us.  God uses personal leading of His Spirit, His confirming leading in the lives of others, the timing of events, His own sovereign works, and the Word of the Lord in order to teach us.  May God help us to wake up to all the ways that He is trying to teach us.  May we be a people of the Word, a people of prayer, a people of the Spirit and a people of the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

Work of God audio

It's Me Standing in the Need

2 Samuel 12:1-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on the Sunday preceding Dependence on King Jesus Day, July 2, 2023.

The story of David's sin with Bathsheba can be found in 2 Samuel 11.  It is a dark stain upon the otherwise righteous life and impeccable character of David.  I mean a stain so dark that it causes many to balk at how he could have done these things without having been like this all the time before it.  Chapter 11 ends with the statement that is translated in many versions as saying that David was "displeasing to the Lord."  It literally says that "it was evil in the eyes of the Lord."

Temptation is a powerful thing.  It started with David walking on his rooftop in the cool of the evening.  From his vantage point, he happened to see a woman bathing who was a striking beauty.  He should have walked away at that point.  One cannot control that first moment of seeing something that you were not attempting to see.  However, lust took root in David's heart.  He had "beheld" her too long with his eyes.

The Bible speaks of  making provision for the flesh.  In this case, David did not know who this woman was.  He could have left it at that, but his desire pushed him to inquire about the identity of this woman.  It was then that he found out that it was Bathsheba, the wife of one of his elite warriors, Uriah the Hittite.  He should have immediately walked away.  She was the wife of another man, and thus, not a potential prospect for him (even though he had plenty of wives at this point). 

Now that he knew her identity, David's lust pushed him further.  He sends for Bathsheba to come to the palace.  It is not clear how she is talked into coming to the palace, but it appears she was as willing as he to commit adultery. 

It is not clear if David intended to continue meeting with her, but she later sends back word to David that she was pregnant.  During this story, her husband Uriah has been with the army of Israel across the Jordan.  They were battling against the Ammonite city, Rabbah (the modern city of Amman).  We don't know how long they had been away, but Uriah's absence made it easier to commit the adultery.

David had a problem.  Uriah would know that the baby could not be his.  David had no doubt made some promises to Bathsheba.  To solve his problem, David calls for Uriah to come back to Jerusalem under the guise of quizzing him about how the war was going.  After this debriefing, David tells him to go home, even sending food to his house as a reward for all his faithful service.  Of course, David believes that a man who has been away to war for months would immediately jump on a chance to be intimate with his wife.  Thus, Uriah would never know that the child was not really his.

However, Uriah did not comply.  He was too noble to sleep with his wife while his brothers in arms were still at war and perhaps dying on the field.  They couldn't sleep with their wives, and neither would he take advantage of his trip home. 

David finds out the next day that Uriah did not go home, but slept in the servants quarters of the palace.  He tried one more trick by having Uriah eat with him and attempting to make him drunk so that he would lose his inhibitions and go home.  Still, Uriah exercised restraint (unlike David) and again slept in the servants quarters of the palace.

David had to send him back, and so he sends him back to the battle with a letter for Joab the General.  It basically told Joab to put Uriah in the front of the battle and then have the men pull back so that Uriah would die.  Joab complied, and Uriah died at the hands of the Ammonites.

How could David have done such a horrible thing to anyone, much less a man who had been faithful to him during the many years of running from Saul?  David had chosen to act like the very man he had replaced, abusing his power, and unrighteously seeking the life of a just man.  He did all of this to satisfy his lust.

This brings us to our passage today.

Nathans story (v. 1-6)

One has to believe that the Spirit of God had been convicting David all along the sordid path of his sin.  At the moment of seeing her, it would have been there.  "Walk away!"  But, David didn't listen and pressed on.  "Don't ask who she is!"  However, David did it anyway.  "Don't send that servant to fetch her!"  Yet, he did.  "Don't take her into your bedroom!"  "Don't call for Uriah!"  "Don't send him home."  "Don't get him drunk."  "Don't write that letter!"  "Don't give it to him!"  All along the way, David trampled the warnings of his conscience and of the Spirit of God, letting his lusts drag him away.

Sin often creates problems and we see David scrambling to cover up his sin.  However, he reached a point where he was no longer scrambling and it appeared that he had gotten away with it.  Yet, when we refuse to listen to God, He has ways of getting our attention.

Let's recognize that David did not just commit two sins, adultery and murder.  He was daily sinning against the Lord who had loved him, protected him, and raised him up to be king of Israel.  He was sinning against God every day he hardened his heart.  David was trapped in his sin.

However, God cared about Uriah's family.  He cared about Israel, and about what David would become if he was allowed to get away with this sin.  God cared how David's actions would affect the strategic position that he had within God's plan of redemption for Israel and the nations.

In 2 Samuel, God had promised David that the Messiah would come through his line, and that he would sit upon the throne of David forever.  This sin was an obstacle to the work of God through David and so God steps in by sending Nathan the prophet to David.

Speaking truth to power can be a dicey prospect even when God sends you.  God can protect you, but He can also be testing the authority to see if they will abuse his servant.  Think about it.  What happened to most of the prophets?  They were killed by the powers to whom they spoke the truth. 

Today, in America, people are slobbering at becoming a prophet.  They are going to schools, and studying the lives of "prophets," so that they can learn to be one.  However, becoming a true prophet of God is akin to receiving a death sentence in this world.  It is heartaches and humiliations galore, not a giddy event.

Telling David a story allows Nathan to slip the truth in before David spits it out.  You remember the song.  "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down..."  There is a lot of medicine that we need, but we don't want to swallow it.  We don't want to hear it.  We are sick and tired of hearing it.  We put our fingers in our ears and then angrily go away so that we won't have to hear it.  Of course, in doing so, we have just testified against ourselves.  On the day that we stand before God, He will ask us why we didn't listen.  We may then reply that we couldn't have known.  Yet, God will play that moment back to us, and we will be silenced.

Nathan's story is a classic rich man versus poor man plot.  David would quickly empathize with the powerless poor man, having been the youngest of a lot of brothers.  Also, he had been falsely accused by Saul who was the previous king.  Saul had hunted him like a deer throughout Israel, seeking to put him to death unjustly.

The story is very straight forward.  A rich man who has plenty of lambs to slaughter, and plenty of money with which to buy a lamb if he needed, is contrasted with a poor man who had nothing but a ewe lamb that he had purchased.  It was a family pet, much like we would keep a pet dog.  Like any pet, this lamb had become very dear to the poor man and his children.

One day a traveler came and stayed with the rich man.  Instead of feeding him from his own flock, or buying a lamb from the market, he takes the lamb of the poor man and feeds it to his visitor.  Though nothing is mentioned, the poor man would have never agreed to this.  So, we are left to imagine what the rich man did to take the lamb, no doubt a group of his hired hands roughed the poor man up.  Of course, such details are irrelevant.  How does a person come to a point of such gross sin?

Of course, this is an analogy.  The traveler represents the temptation and the lust of David being stirred up.  Like a traveler from afar, lust shows up and asks for lodging for the night.  He should have told it to go lodge somewhere else.  However, David wished to entertain this traveler.

Though Nathan did not ask for a decision, David explodes with great anger.  He is quite passionate in declaring judgment against the rich man.  He calls upon the Lord as a witness, "As the Lord lives!"  He then declares that the man will die.

Now theft was not a capital crime in Israel, just as it isn't in our Republic.  His statement that the lamb will be paid back four times shows that David is quite aware of Exodus 22:1 and its prescription.  However, because the rich man did this thing "without pity," David wants him to die.

Mitigating factors are things that lessen the gravity of a crime.  Perhaps a man was an orphan, very poor, and had no food.  Such a person who steals a lamb in order to keep from starving is not going to be judged so harshly.  However, the rich man has aggravating factors.  David thinks that his riches and insensibility requires death.

It is an interesting dynamic that people who are overly harsh in their judgments are often hiding sin of their own.  They refuse to repent, and thereby punish themselves, so they take it out on others.  David himself is guilty of several capital crimes.  You might think he would be adverse to capital punishment.  Instead, he insulates himself by becoming overly righteous.  Sometimes people can become so bad that they lie to themselves.  "I'm okay, and it is everyone else who is wrong!"

Jesus alludes to this in Matthew 7:5 when he talks about judging.  "Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."  When you have fought against sin in your own heart and mind, you tend to be more compassionate without excusing the sin.  You know that fighting sin is hard, so you work hard to help your brother come clean before God without crushing him with harsh words.

Every son is disciplined by their fathers.  As earthly fathers, none of us are perfect in our discipline.  If you have any kind of heart for them at all, you try to do your best.  Of course, no kid likes the discipline they receive at the time.  However, discipline doesn't have to be perfect to do a good work in us.  By its very nature, being disciplined to do anything in life builds strength and tempers a person.  It can be directed in better paths latter, but the foundational skill is there.

This is why many in our society enter the work force and cannot keep a job.  They were never disciplined, and taught how to discipline themselves at home.  Parents know that life is tough, and if a person is not disciplined, it is even tougher.

The same thing is true spiritually.  Let's get real.  The effects of sin are devastating, and harsh.  If you are not disciplined, get ready for a lot of lumps.  Of course, there isn't a one of us who hasn't received their fair share of lumps from sin.  However, God is gracious to keep reaching out to us.

Nathan waits until David's response is made, and then, he masterfully reveals that the story was a picture of his actions with Bathsheba.

The meaning of Nathan's story (v. 7-14)

"You are the man!"  With this simple sentence, David quickly sees that Nathan knows everything, and that God is not going to let him get away with it.  You are the man in this story David.  And, this time, you are not the poor, persecuted man.  You are the abusive, rich man.

Nathan quickly moves to the judgment that God has given.  Notice that God is not as harsh in His judgment as David was in his.  You could say that God didn't keep the Law of Moses.  I remember a Jewish man asking me a gotcha question.  "Is there grace in the Law of Moses?"  I told him that there was grace all through the Law of Moses.  He was surprised that this would be my answer as a Christian.

The prophets of Israel understood that the Law could not save them in and of itself.  David himself got it.  In Psalm 51, which he wrote following this event, he writes that if God really wanted the blood of bulls and goats that he would give it.  Instead, what God really wanted was a broken and contrite heart.  Such a man God would not turn away.

Have you noticed that our society seems to be exalting a principle of not having to pay the consequences of sin.  However, mercy is not mercy unless sin is sin.  What I mean is this.  If we detach sin from its natural consequences, then we are no longer being merciful.  We diminish sin to something that isn't your fault, poor you.  We enlist the taxes of the rest of society to mitigate, and even erase as much of the consequences as we can.  This is not mercy; it is insanity.  It creates a society of thankless, entitled brats who have lost connection with reality.  It also creates an elitist class that grifts off of the tax pools that are enlisted to "help these poor people."  Yes, they are poor, and yes they need help.  But, this is the last thing these grifters would ever hope to happen.  Thus, every year the helpless and hopeless pool grows larger, and the pot of money needed to "help them" grows larger, and the amount of money that ends up in the pockets of the elite and their cronies grows exponentially. 

This is why God designed homes to be a protected environment for kids to learn about the consequences of sin.  Parents are not perfect, but they have the greatest interest in this child maturing into a man or woman that is able to discipline themselves for their good, and the good of society.  Believe me, when you leave home and go out into the world, the stakes become much higher, and the consequences of a poor choice can mean your life, and much more, your eternity.

We should see consequences as the grace of God that tell us that we can't ignore and run from sin.  It tells us that it is better to nip it in the bud because the effects of sin grow exponentially the longer we cling to it.

David was running from his sins, and it needed to be nipped in the bud.  God had staked a lot on David, but he doesn't hide his sin.  He makes him face it publicly.  In fact, God knew what David would do when He removed Saul and placed David in his place.

It is important to recognize that the Bible does not present King Saul as all wicked, and King David as all righteous.  They both are raised to power as good men, and they both end up in a place of abusing their power and being rebuked by God.  So, what is the difference between Saul and David?

The difference is this.  When confronted with their sin by the Lord, David repented, but Saul blamed it on everyone but himself (including God).  David turned away from a heart that is hardened against the ways of God with a broken and contrite heart, but Saul hardened his heart and persisted in his ways of wickedness.

This has always been the difference between the righteous and the wicked.  It is not that the righteous have never sinned, or haven't sinned as much as the wicked.  It is that they repent when God sends the message, "You are the man!"  Of course, we need to walk repentance daily.  It is a trap to think that you no longer have to worry about repentance because you did it already.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus identified with His Church knowing what a mess we would make of it.  Jesus is not for our sin as a Church.  He despises what it does to us and to a fallen world.  Don't be deceived.  He will always rebuke and discipline the ones He loves.  He will not walk arm and arm with us and pretend like our sin is no big deal.

However, God is not afraid to be connected to us and our sin.  We are His Church. He is faithful to do the work of purifying His children, and His Church as a whole.  Ultimately, the end times will bring forth a polarization of the external Church into a false church vs. a True Church.  Christ will allow the Beast to destroy one and will stand in defense of the other.

An aggravating factor is that David sinned in the face of great blessing from God.  David had difficult times during the years of King Saul.  Yet, God protected him, and sent men to rally around him.  God gave him victory over Goliath when no one else had the faith to stand against him.  God blessed him as a victorious general in Saul's army.  God blessed him with a family, and ultimately that his dynasty would last forever.  Verse 8 shows us God's heart.  "If that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!"

We should note that it was normal for kings throughout the world to have whatever women they desired under their rule.  In fact, it is even still normal for presidents today to send word to a woman, married or not, that the president is interested.  Power goes to people's heads, and people will protect and feed the lust of an individual simply to stay close to the levers of power.  No one would have batted an eye at what David did if he were in a nation other than Israel.  However, this was Yahweh's land.  The God of Truth, who raised up kings and put them down at His leisure, made this a different story.  The God of Israel would not countenance such a thing without repercussions.

However, I am talking about America today!  We have been so blessed, and we have been gobbling up blessing after blessing, to the left and to the right, just shoving it into our mouths like a bunch of porky pigs.  Still, we just don't have enough.  We have to go out and straddle the planet with our military and global corporations, taking as we please and cloaking it in a deceptive cloak of morality.

We do similar things in our cities and towns.  Family members do it to family members.  In so many ways, we are gobbling up the grace of God, and we are taking it for granted.  You can't do that for very long and survive the wrath of God.

Yet, God in His great grace is faithful to send voices out of the wilderness to tell us a story, to try and get our attention.  I believe that God is greatly displeased with these united States of America.  I think that He is trying to get some Nathan's to rise up and confront the people of this Republic.  Yes, truth must be spoken to our government officials, but the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court are not the highest human authorities in this land.  No.  The highest human authority in this land is We the People who ordained and set in order the highest human law of this Republic, the Constitution of these united States.  The rebuke must first be heard by We the People, and a response of repentance must first be walked out by We the People before God will hold our criminal servants in government accountable.

Ours is not a message of destruction.  God gives grace to David.  He deserved a death sentence, but God actually wanted a repentant heart that would quite the lawlessness.  There is hope in repentance.  God hasn't cast you off yet.  He is not calling for your death!

David  is told that he has despised God's commands (v. 9), and then later that he has despised God Himself (v. 10).  David knew the truth of God, but in this moment he wanted to sin.

It is a great blessing to know the heart and commands of God.  Many people in this world don't know their right hand from their left hand.  It doesn't excuse their sin, but it does mitigate their guilt before God in comparison to ours.  Some might say that no sin can be mitigated, but our sin can be done with aggravating factors that make it even worse.

Yet, over the top of this, David did his sin anyways.  He then continued to sin in order to cover up his previous sin.  Temptation and sin is precisely a trap.  The bait may be delicious, but now Satan has you in his hands.  He will manipulate you into more and more sin, worse and worse sin, in order to defeat the work of God in your life and sphere of influence.  Sin knows no boundaries, and there is no "bottom of the barrel."  There is only a descent into the abyss, into the bottomless pit of degradation and wickedness.

The word "despised" has the sense of lifting your head disdainfully against God and His Word.  Is this not a picture of our Republic today?  Is this not a picture of many Christians who give lip service to God, but despise His Words in their hearts and actions?  Let not a man bound by sin think that he can have freedom.  God will be faithful to send gracious rebukes, but if we do not repent, we will continue in slavery to sin and the powers that He places over us.

Nathan tells David that his actions had given the enemies of the LORD occasion to blaspheme (v. 14).  There were those in Israel who refused to serve Yahweh in their hearts.  There were also some who refused to believe that God had removed Saul and placed David on the throne.  They hated the ways and decisions of Yahweh.  To blaspheme is to declare things as true that are not true of Yahweh and His work. 

This is happening all across our land today.  Some of it is the fault of the Church.  We give ammunition to the enemies of God when we hide sin and refuse to deal with it.  This also gives ammunition to the spiritual powers to keep them from coming to see the truth of God and switching allegiance.

In this case, it is most likely that the blasphemy would not be centered on the idea that there is no Yahweh, or that He is not really about righteousness.  They would speak out against the decisions of Yahweh that were pronounced by prophets like Samuel and Nathan.  They could even reject the idea that a Messiah figure would come from the line of David.  How can a righteous man come from such a line?  One can't in the flesh, but by the Spirit of God, all things are possible!

It is one thing for people to despise God and His ways when Christians do what is righteous.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:6, "Blessed is he who does not stumble because of me."  Jesus had done nothing wrong, but he knew many people would not understand what He was doing.  However, the American Church is not pure.  We have become like David in many ways.  Have we also insulated ourselves so that we don't have to hear the voice of the Nathan's in our land?

Let me end with talking about God's mercy on David.  David would not be executed, and God would not cancel the covenant promise that He had made concerning Messiah.  Furthermore, God would remove David's sin from him. 

This is not favoritism.  This is about God's love for all sinners of the earth, and grace for those who will turn from their sin, repent, and turn towards Him and His righteousness.  Messiah would not come from a perfect family of a perfect tribe of a perfect nation.  God's work within all of us is at its best mercy upon a sinner who deserves death.  Even the people that He uses in our lives are merely sinners saved by the grace of God.

In the midst of God's grace is also chastisement.  The child would die, and David would continually have trouble with "the sword" among his family.  On top of this, God would raise up one who would sleep with David's wives in the full view of all of Jerusalem.  This was done during the rebellion of his son Absolom.  God sends a signal to Israel and to the nations that no man, no matter how much authority God has given him, is above the Word of God and the call to repentance by anyone in society.

America has been sinning for a very long time, but the greatest problem is those who claim to know Jesus who are refusing to repent.  They don't want to give up their authority and will not be held accountable to any religious notions.  Do you remember the phrase, "No king, but King Jesus!"?  Just like God knew Israel would fail from the beginning, so God was quite aware of the faithlessness of this nation that would grow through the centuries.  Yet, He decided in our favor during the War for Independence.

We must quit looking at the nations when God is saying, "You are the people!"  We must quit looking at the sin of others when God is saying "You are the person!"  We must once again become a repenting people, even as we pay a chastising price for past sin.

I believe that God can and will give mercy to this Republic if we will humble ourselves and turn away from our wicked ways.  We have to quit excusing sexual immorality in the Church.  We have to quit excusing the sacrifice of our children for a better life.  We have to quit eating, drinking, and being merry in our own houses while the rest of the Republic goes to hell in a hand basket.

Let me close by reminding us of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Eric Metaxas talks about this in his book, Letter to the American Church.  Adolph Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January of 1933.  November 6, 1932, on Reformation Sunday, Dietrich was preaching from Revelation 2 in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.  All the bigwigs of society were there with many pastors in attendance.  This prophetic message focused on the message to the Ephesian Church.  "I have this against you, that you have left your first love."  They were celebrating the work of Martin Luther and that they were the spiritual descendants of him, the Lutherans.  Yet, the harsh pill, the medicine, you are not at all like Martin Luther.  He stood against every demon of hell in order to follow the Spirit of God in obedience to Jesus.  Yet, this group would not take a stand against the Nazi Party's racist policies.  The Church of Jesus could never compromise with such ideologies.

Dietrich was pushed off as a young man who was just looking for a fight.  Years of experience would tame him.  This is often true, but Dietrich was not looking for a fight.  He was simply seeing that they were already in a fight that precious few could see, a fight for the soul of Germany.

Metaxas says that there were 18,000 pastors in Germany at the time.  Three thousand were like Dietrich and stood steadfast against the Nazis from the beginning.  Another three thousand were Nazi lovers who had no problem with the invectives and signaled threats against the Jews.  That left twelve thousand (2/3rds) in the middle.  The problem for Germany was not the 3,000 Nazi-loving pastors, but the impotent two-thirds in the middle.  Some of the 12,000 eventually woke up, but after it was far too late to save their society from the great evil that was threatening it and the world.

Metaxas mentions that Hitler took power in January of 1933.  Bonhoeffer was already scheduled to make a speech via radio address in February 1933.  His topic was servant leadership.  As Bonhoeffer described the kind of leadership that Christians must exhibit and require of their leaders, the power to the whole radio station was shut down.  It had become to late to make a difference as Hitler quickly began to flex his power and take control of the media in Germany.

We can point to lost people who are doing lost things as the problem in our society.  They are a problem, but they are not the problem.  The problem is not even those lost pastors, bishops, and denominations that embrace wickedness in the name of love and tolerance.  No. The problem in these united States of America is the two-thirds of pastors, elders, and Christians who are on the fence about how to move forward.  The enemy does not care if you don't embrace wickedness, as long as you are feckless and afraid to take a stand exactly where the Holy Spirit is calling us to take a stand today (like Dietrich against Hitler, and David against Goliath).  God is looking for people in His Church who love truth more than their reputation, or a nice cushy position.  Martin Luther lost his place in the Roman Catholic Church.  He was hunted by the powers that be.

God will be gracious if enough of us wake up, and say yes to the Spirit of God.  Our actions right now actually say that we are just here for the American Dream.  But, have you ever considered what Jesus' Dream for America is?  We can stiff arm the Spirit and try to get back to "normal," having a good Church service with wonderful music, happy family, happy BBQ in the afternoon while watching sports.  It is not that these things are wrong and bad, but that they become all that we are living for while people are dying in a lost state, going to hell, and  we are losing our Republic.

Perhaps you are of the ilk to simply give up.  Yes, that's what happens when people sin.  Que sera, sera.  O, friend, you don't want to go through what can be next, and how bad things can get. God is removing the middle ground because it always belonged to Satan in the first place.  We must choose this day whose side we are on.  And, the only way to stop it is to repent and follow Jesus. 

Pick up your cross and let's follow him!

It's Me audio

The Acts of the Apostles 45

Subtitle: The Holy Spirit Falls upon Gentiles

Acts 10:44-48.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 25, 2023.

Today we are going to talk about the first time that Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

It is one thing to think of God filling Israelites and sending them out into the nations with power to be a witness.  They were in the position close to God, and the Gentiles were far from God.  If there was going to be any powerful witness, then surely it must be through Israel alone.

Thus, it was harder for some in the early Church to grasp the full magnitude to what Jesus had done at the cross, and what He was now doing through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the way to draw ourselves back to the truth is to understand Jesus as a servant (Matthew 20:28).  We are not just putting on a powerful display.  We are powerfully serving lost people by serving God's heart for them.

Israel was not called of God like some kind of teacher's pet, an act of favoritism.  Just read the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 (and the multitude of passages throughout the prophets).  God told them up front that they would not be any different than the Gentiles in their faithfulness.  Isaiah depicted Israel as a blind and deaf servant.  Fat lot of good that will do God.  However, Christ rises up as the ultimate Son of David, the ultimate Israel, who serves both Israel and the Gentiles.

The heart of God was in redeeming Israel and the Gentiles all at the same time.  In eternity, we will dwell with Him as the Sons of God without the distinctions of Jew and Gentile.

So, the early Church had to come to grips with God cleansing the Gentiles so that they could directly approach His throne of grace through Jesus, instead of the Law of Moses.  And, they had to come to grips with God filling and empowering Gentiles by the Holy Spirit filling them.  This was hammered out in Acts chapter 15.

Over the years, the Church has almost inverted this issue.  We have come to the point that some almost doubt that a Jewish person can be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.  Some label them as "Christ Killers" as if they have done the unpardonable sin.  Yet, this is not the case.  God is breaking down this dividing wall of hostility by His Holy Spirit.  Can God fill a Jewish person?  Of course, He can and does, all around this world!

Let's look at our passage.

The Holy Spirit falls upon Gentiles (v. 44-46)

As Peter is preaching to Cornelius, his family, and his friends, they are baptized in the Holy Spirit by the Lord Jesus.  Yes, this passage doesn't exactly use this phrase here.  However, in Acts 11:15-17, Peter clearly testifies that this is the same thing regardless of what words are used to describe it.

With that said, let's take a few moments to look at some of the variety of terminology used of the Holy Spirit's work in believers.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit uses the imagery of water baptism to depict a person completely immersed and doused with the Spirit.  It is an external image that is comparable to another image that pictures a person being "clothed with power" from on high.  The Holy Spirit comes upon the believer for a particular work and empowers them for it.

However, there is also internal imagery that is used, such as being filled with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit resides within a person at salvation, but it is clear that we need to be filled with the Spirit.  Jesus employed the analogy of a spring of living water that comes up out of our heart, overflowing our life, and touching others (John 7:38-39).

In this passage, we have the phrase, "the Holy Spirit fell upon [them]."  This is another external image that highlights the vertical aspect of God and man.  It is a common way of speaking of the Spirit in the Old Testament.  It gives the sense of suddenness.  The Spirit falls upon them suddenly.  However, it also emphasizes that the person on the earth is receiving empowerment from heaven.  The Spirit falls upon them from heaven.  This implies that something powerful will then follow.

All of these phrases are not so much different things as they are different ways of talking about the same thing.

I love that they are baptized in the Holy Spirit, "while Peter was still speaking these words."  Peter hadn't had a chance to give an altar call.  He hadn't even mentioned that the promise of the Holy Spirit yet.  In fact, this reminds me of the event in Acts 8 where Peter lays his hands upon the Samaritans and prays for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  He also had not done this.

This does not mean Peter was doing something wrong, or he was taking to long to get to the point, and Jesus was becoming anxious.  I believe that it happened this way because Jesus was trying to teach Peter something, and by extension, to teach us.

Peter's last words were, "To Him all the prophets witnessed that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."  Remember that these people are the exact opposite of a hard audience.  They were ready to believe whatever Peter told them.  At this point, they have heard the Gospel and are no doubt believing that this Jesus was the Messiah promised by God through His prophets.

This is a key moment.  It shows us that there is not a ritual, or procedure, or a particular prayer that must be prayed in order to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Jesus does the work as we believe the word of God.

It is a human tendency to reduce things to a "way that it is done."  We tend to reduce the powerful work of God's salvation to a list of three things you must do. 

Don't get me wrong.  There are absolutes that never change.  Jesus is the only one upon whom we must believe in order to be at peace with God.  That will never change.  However, we can accrete all manner of ideas, doctrines, and theologies that are not absolute upon the absolute truth about Jesus.

When we do this, we make all kinds of boxes that we believe God will stay in.  Our mortal flesh is uncomfortable with  an omnipotent, omniscient Sovereign who is the Creator and Lord of the universe.  We must be careful of creating boxes in our mind that attempt to define what God can do because we He may choose to come in a way that doesn't fit in your boxes.  We might even crucify the Lord of Glory, resisting the Holy Spirit, because He isn't doing it "right."

Peter did not have to coach these Gentiles that day.  The Spirit of God sovereignly came upon them and moved in them to do what He wanted.  They were filled with the Holy Spirit in the middle of Peter's sermon.

Luke describes the group of people who came with Peter as believers of "the Circumcision."  This phrase was used by Jews of themselves, and it referred to biological Israelites who observed the Law of Moses.  For a male, circumcision came to be the most important sign of the covenant.  This was a general use within Israel. 

However, in the New Testament, we find a narrower use of this term for circumcised Israelites who had believed upon Jesus, but also believed that Gentiles should conform to the Law of Moses, i.e., be circumcised, before they could embrace Jesus- more likely that they would embrace the Law of Moses at the time of embracing Jesus (they both went hand in hand).  Paul dealt with this especially in the book of Galatians.

This will be the main issue in Acts 15.  It will be a council to determine if the theology of The Circumcision was correct.  I believe these believers that had come with Peter were part of this group.  Peter himself leans this way, but is clearly being taught by the Holy Spirit that this is a wrong-headed way of seeing the work of Jesus.

Jesus is building a case for Peter (as a master teacher) that has three main components in this passage.  First, Peter could not deny his vision and the things that he saw and heard in it.  Second, Peter could not deny that the Holy Spirit told him to go with the men to meet Cornelius.  Third, Peter could not deny that God had sovereignly poured out His Spirit upon these Gentiles in the same way He had done at Pentecost back in Acts chapter 2. 

We are told that those believers of The Circumcision were astonished.  They can't believe what they are seeing, not because they have never seen it before, but because it is messing with their theology, their precious little boxes.  If we improperly develop limitations to God that are not right, He will be faithful to mess with our theology and show us the truth (if we have eyes to see).  Hold fast to God's word, but don't hold rigidly to your ideas about God's word that go beyond what it says, or "makes sense of what it says."  Don't do so especially in the face of God's sovereign actions.  Learn to love the Holy Spirit's work more than your limitations of what that can be.

It is easy to look at the Pharisees, people whose theology caused them to resist what God was doing, and thank God that you are not like them.  Roman Catholics can look at Eastern Orthodox and be glad that they are not like them.  "Too bad that they didn't understand.  Thank God that we have the truth!"  Protestants can do the same thing to Roman Catholics.  "They didn't get it and fought the Holy Spirit, but we've got it!"

On and on, we can go, always looking back at what we believe justifies us and condemns others.  The problem is that, as we look back, we build little restrictive boxes of human reasoning, and mentalities, that somehow believe that we now understand completely how God does things.  We who think that we are on the cutting edge of following the Spirit of God can be stuck in rigid thinking that causes us to resist what God wants to do in our day.

This is precisely what Dietrich Bonhoeffer dealt with in pre-Nazi Germany.  The fall before Hitler became Chancellor and the Nazi party quickly took power, the Lutherans were looking back to Martin Luther and celebrating that they had the truth!  Yet, Bonhoeffer warned them that they were not doing what Martin Luther did.  Martin Luther stood against every demon of hell to be faithful to what the Holy Spirit was saying in his day.  This is not what the German Lutheran pastors of 1932 were doing.  They were resisting the prophetic voices of men like Dietrich and allowing Hitler to take power.  Many of them did not wake up to the threat until it was too late.

It doesn't matter what group you are in and what they did for God in the past.  We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit right now, and go forth as He sovereignly leads us!

So, how did they know that the Gentiles had been filled with the Holy Spirit?  Verse 46 tells us that they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God.  This most likely means that some of the onlookers understood some of their language.  Yet, it was quite clear that they were all speaking in different languages.

There were three recognizable things in Acts 2 at the Day of Pentecost.  There was a loud sound like a wind, there were tongues like fire above every head, and they began speaking in tongues.  We never see the first two signs again, though God can do them at any time.  Similarly, John the Baptist saw a dove descend upon Jesus at His water baptism to signify that He was also filled with the Holy Spirit.  This is not seen again as well (though God is sovereign and can do so at any time).  It appears that speaking in tongues is the main, immediate evidence that a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

A person may say that we are not told that the Samaritans spoke in tongues in Acts 8 when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  However, there was something that happened that was obvious to onlookers.  This is why Simon the Sorcerer was amazed.  Though it doesn't mention what he saw, the most likely is that they spoke in tongues.

That said, the main purpose for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not speaking in tongues.  Rather, it is about empowerment to witness to the world around us.  Thus, the long-lasting evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a life that is transformed into a powerful witness to others.  This doesn't mean that everyone you witness to becomes a believer.  However, it does create a tension for us as Christians.  My job is not to make people believe.  Rather, my job is to make sure that I am filled with the Spirit, listening to Him and following Him.  My job is making sure that I am not standing in the way of what He wants to do through me, but rather, being a channel of the Spirit.

Let's not be guilty of honoring Spirit-led people of the past, all the while resisting the Holy Spirit today.

The Gentiles are water baptized (v. 47-48)

So, when were these people actually saved?  As God-fearers, they had been accepted by God, but only under the grace that would later come through Jesus.  Once Jesus had come and paid the price for sin on the cross, they would need to obey the Holy Spirit and believe upon Jesus.  We are saved when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus, these people were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit all at the same time!  On top of this, they weren't even water baptized yet.

Do we really need to water baptize someone if they are already baptized in the Spirit?  Peter believed so.  After the initial coming of the Spirit upon them had subsided, Peter continues to teach them what they must do.  They need to obey the Lord by being baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ.  It is a command of the Lord not just to the believer, but especially to those who bring them to Christ.

This is a problematic passage for any who try to make water baptism necessary for salvation (or Spirit baptism for that matter).  We are not water baptized so that we can be saved, or filled with the Spirit.  A person is water baptized because they have believed and been saved by the Lord Jesus.

Peter asks if anyone can forbid them from being water baptized.  The obvious candidates for forbidding would be The Circumcision group.  I don't think Peter is asking their permission, but rather stating that they should speak now, or forever hold their peace.   Who can argue with God? 

If Peter had laid his hands upon them and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit, then they would probably have protested (as if, Peter is actually the one baptizing people in the Spirit).  They were clearly check-mated by the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  No one could object.

Peter also reminds them that these Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit "just as we have."  How did they receive the Holy Spirit?  It was a gift that came sovereignly by faith in Jesus, the Lord's Anointed One, and at the Lord's timing.  They did not receive the Holy Spirit because of their circumcision, or great ability to keep the Law of Moses.  This doesn't mean the Law is bad, but that it could not be the means of salvation and being filled with God's Spirit.  The New Covenant was a greater covenant than the Old covenant.  Thus, the older work of the Spirit can sometimes become a stumbling block when God calls us into new territory.

Thus, they baptized these new Gentile believers.

I want to take a few moments to point out things that are normative versus things that are necessary.  It is normal for people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then be water baptized.  This might happen the same day, or weeks later.  We might even have a class teaching on what water baptism is all about.  A person then may pray for weeks, or longer, asking for God to baptize them in the Holy Spirit.  When we say something is normative, we mean that it is the common way that things happen.  Most people experience a sequence to these things.  However, it is not necessary that it always happens that way.  Sometimes there are extraordinary circumstances and activity.

We might even think about the concept of averages.  If we took the length of childbirth for women and plotted it, we would most likely see a Bell Curve graph.  We could even determine the average length of time for a woman to give birth of a child from the onset of labor pains.  I am not sure who the woman is who has set the all-time record for speed of delivery.  However, the average length of time for a woman to give birth would have meant very little to her and any midwife at the time.  The attendant would not be yelling at her to quit pushing because she is having it too soon.  If she is dilated and the baby is coming, who cares what the average is.  Similarly, the poor woman on the other end of the spectrum is not encouraged by the knowledge that "she is taking too long."  Imagine a doctor walking out because she isn't "doing it right."

There are somethings that are necessary for childbirth, but there are also many things that are normative, and yet not necessary.  They are just common, the average experience of most women.  Is not salvation a spiritual birth into God's kingdom?  Should we not simply deal with what is happening instead of critiquing on things that are not necessary, though perhaps normative?  I think so, but more importantly, I think this is what Scripture shows us.

I believe that these passages exist to give us caution.  We can tend to build rigid ideas around what normally happens to the point that we are to accept God when He steps outside of our box.  In fact, the idea that people can be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues today has become something that is outside of the box of many Christians.

Of course, we can do the same thing with the order, or the laying on of hands, etc.  God may normally use these things, but it doesn't make them necessary.  Only one thing is needful.  It is sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of Him by His Holy Spirit.  It is relationship with God by the Spirit.  Jesus wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  When I am in a loving relationship with Him, I will want that too.

I want to encourage us to be a people who are seeking, praying, and asking God for the Promise of the Father, His Holy Spirit.  Let us be a people who are being baptized in the Spirit, and daily filled with power for the task at hand.  This is not just a one time thing that is simply "one and done."  It is a daily walking with the Lord, seeking His will, and His empowerment for that will.  Let us make a powerful difference in the life of the Church, and in the lives of the Lost.

Spirit Falls audio