Tag Archives: Spiritual Maturity

Acts, Bible Studies

Acts 12

Leave a comment

Acts of the Holy Spirit

The weather last week was muggy. Some people say this is an omen for the much-needed El Niño, a weather phenom that often brings rain to California. We need the rain. A lot of moisture bloomed up from Baja. It tends to even out temperatures, but also visibility. Looking across Estero Bay, everything was a grey haze, not a lot of contrast. Almost like a bad landscape shot from a Kodak Instamatic, for those of you who remember them, small film cameras from the 50’s with sub-optimal optics for those who do not.

instamatic

What was missing was contrast. I knew the Morro Rock was there, but it didn’t look much different than the blue Pacific surrounding it. Hills, sky, water, everything looked the same. Unsatisfying because it lacked definition.

contrast
Same view, only the time of day and contrast are different

This page of the Church’s early adventure, on the other hand, is vivid in its contrast. But you do have to give it the efforts it deserves. Contrasts in two men.

 

First  Peter, the faith he demonstrated, the gates he walked through, the people he associated with. Second, two kings, Herod & Jesus, the  people they associated with, the powers under there control, the clothes they wore, and the consequences of the words they spoke. So take off the lens cover, clean the lens, and load a can of Kodachrome as we snap our way through chapter 12.

The Contrast of Peter 1.0 & Peter 2.0

Acts 12:1 – Which Herod are we speaking of?

Herod the Great was one of the great builders of antiquity. A small, man, he was an Edomite, an Idumean, descendents of Esau. Herod fell in love with a true Jewish princess, Mariamni (sp?) a Maccabean descendent. This Herod killed at least 15 of his sons. The joke in Rome was it was safer to be Herod’s king, than Herod’s son.

This is Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the great. He was put into power by Caligua. Late, Paul was put before trial in front of this man’s son, Herod Agrippa II.

So now this Herod persecutes the Christians, a way to get the Jews to like him.

Acts 12:2 – It is said that he hacked in in half, lengthwise.

Acts 12:3 – OK, if you liked that, I’ll go get the biggies.

Acts 12:4 – A quaternion was a group of four soldiers.  usually two were used for a really bad guy. To have 4 quaternions, 16 soldiers to guard one prisoner begs the question, why so many? We can only speculate, but remember that his grandfather Herod the Great, was fond of John the Baptist. Could it be that there was a part of him who knew better. More importantly, do we ignore that part of our being (our conscience) when it comes to hearing God’s voice?

Acts 12:5 – What would have happened if they would have prayed for James? God has chosen to work through prayer. It is also to prepare us for the unending ages ahead to communicate with God.

Acts 12:6 – Once again, peter is sleeping like at Gethsemane. But this time he is sleeping because he is at peace with the Lord.Yes, you can demonstrate faith by sleeping, as Peter did here sawing logs before the day of his scheduled death. But Peter also heard Jesus prophesy about his demise in John 21:18

Acts 12:7 – Ever notice angels always seem to be in a hurry.

Acts 12:9 – He though he was in a dream.

Acts 12:11 – See Peter figure it out. What if Peter rolled over and went back to sleep. No, he acted anyway, out of faith. We also hear these exhortations and prophecies, and not act on a a notion God puts in our heart. If we step out and move forward, we may find it was just a vision, or onions the night before, or it may be being nudged by the HS.  Pro:14:4 promises a clean manger, but no results. It takes getting up and moving forward, even though it’s a bit messy at times.

Acts 12:12 – Perhaps the same Upper Room used at Pentecost and the Last Supper.

Oh the world is drowning, the world is evil, so many have fallen away, sniffles the church. They had homothymadon, passion in the same direction. The early church had power, we do not. Could it be our perfunctory prayer, begging the faithful to a prayer service, to which few show up? WAKE UP!

Acts 12:13 – Rhoda – means Rose.

Acts 12:15 – These early sensitive to and used to angelic presence, that they did not bother to get up. Paul says that is to be done.

Acts 12:16 -Don’t stand there mouth agape when your prayer is “miraculously” answered. Pastor Chuck Smith relates such a story where the rent is due, and he is between jobs, without two nickels to rub together. He prays and prays, and finally, a a letter comes in the mail, an advance for pastoral work he was to do, totaling exactly howo much he needed for the rent.

Chuck joyfully walks around the house laughing, smiling, and praising God. Then Chuck relates that God said to him, in that still small voice, “Why didn’t you praise and thank Me before the money arrived?”

Acts 12:17 – What a great story! Ha Ha. How so much like me. But note that the prayer was effective all the same. Many times we are not sure how things will turn out, but all it takes is just enough faith to pray.

Acts 12:19 – Obviously, the man is upset. So to relax form this obvious trauma, he went to the luxury resort town of Caesarea.

The Contrast of Christ & Agrippa

Acts 12:20 – {349}We don’t know why he was upset with the locals. They bribed or somehow got an appointment with Blastus.

Acts 12:21 – This is an amphitheater right on the beach. Josephus tells us that these robes were made of pure silver threads, giving a very shiny appearance out in the sun. It was a spectacular garment.

Acts 12:22 – The crowd is sucking up to Herod for the bread. This guy is on an huge ego trip. Jon Courson says flattery is like bubble gum, it’s OK to chew a little, but don’t swallow it.

Acts 12:23 – We don’t know if it was immediate, or perhaps struck by intestinal parasites, doubled over, and died five days later. Dead either way.

This shows absolutely the necessity of giving God glory. When we glorify God, we grow from the inside out. When we glorify ourselves, we rot from the inside out.

 

 

 

Acts, Bible Studies

Acts 11

Leave a comment

Acts of the Holy Spirit

I worked with a supervisor who was very by the book. Every T crossed, every I dotted. Fortunately, I did not report to him, I think I may have done something drastic if I had.

But I remember receiving the occasional email from him.  Like any up and coming member of management, he had a sage, carefully crafted  and hopefully profound (to HIS boss) signature like “Yes we can,” “If you fall seven ties, get up eight,” or as we fantasized with this guy, “The beatings will stop when morale improves.”

His email signature was mundane, engineer-like: “If it’s not documented, it’s not done.” You engineers and other societal outcasts (JK) are nodding in silent agreement. But it never struck me until several years later how true that statement is.

The act of making another major change to the relationship between God and people through the Gospel was and is forever profound. But now, to add salvation to the Gentiles, this blew a LOT of Jewish fuses. The act was to reverberate throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, and it needed to be told (documented) by a teller who was just as flabbergasted.

So what change does God want to make with you that you’re resisting? And will you (and I) be willing to hear that voice, often a friend or trusted one, that’s calling for it?

Acts 11:1-2 –  Through  the grapevine, the news spread fast. They were shocked and stunned, resentful that Peter went to the Gentiles. Change is seldom easy, especially for the pious Jewish believer, who throughout her life, has obeyed the laws and testimonies of the Mosaic Law. So when word of this event with Peter is made known, the natural inclination is to “take issue.”

Acts 11:4 – A parchment or scroll was generally not larger than 35 feet. Books tended to be concise for this reason. So why would the HS inspire Luke to repeat this story? Because it is very important.

Acts 11:10 – Isa 61:10

Acts 11:12 – Peter was wise in bringing six men to be witnesses.

Acts 11:17 – Who indeed,

Acts 11:19 – It took the blood of the martyr to propagate the Gospel. These new Christians are still preaching primarily to Jews, though.

Acts 11:20 – Antioch was the 3rd largest city in Rome with a population of about a half million people, and a center of commerce.   In the mythology the city was dedicated to Daphne, the Goddess of seduction, being seduced by Apollo. It was became the center of the Christian faith after Jerusalem Christians were persecuted. See Acts 6:5, 13:1, 14, chapters 14 & 15, and Galatians 2:11 and 2 Tim 3:11.

Acts 11:23 – Note the effect of the grace of God.

It is the heart that God looks at.

Acts 11:25 –  anazeteo – to seek high and low energetically, used only by Luke here and when Jesus was left back at Jerusalem. (Luke 2:44)

Acts 11:26 – Note the pattern: In v 20 was preaching,  v 23 exhorting v26 teaching by Paul; a perfect troika, all necessary.

Christians – “little Jesus” – what a wonderful epithet.

Acts 11:28 – By meeting in koinonia and being in the Spirit, these Christians didn’t just ooh and ahh from the works shown, non they went on to the practical ministry implied by it. We see Agabus later in the book Acts 21:10 prophesying over Paul’s belt as to Paul’s future.  He here prophesies that a famine from 46 to 48 AD would occur. This gave the saints the opportunity, like Joseph, to prepare for it, and to exercise giving to the saints in Jerusalem, who would be in terrible poverty owing to their being disavowed by the Jewish community for their faith.

Bible Studies, Nehemiah

Nehemiah Chapter 7 & 8 – Returning to Truth

Leave a comment

Both my kids would grab at it with chubby, semi coordinated moist little fingers. they stared, scowled, and when they were old enough, each asked (separately) what that gouge was in the middle of my forehead.

Well, I said, I got that one day when I decided to walk through the neighborhood and see everybody’s back yard. Yes. I was straddling the fence.

For the first 30 feet or so, it went well. I was a ten year old boy with, as I remember it, cat like reflexes and superb balance. So, like my older brother, who had put the idea in my head, and not without more than a little exaggeration as to how how far HE made it, I set out to see the world.

Until the fence changed.

About 30 feet into walking on the fence, the fence abruptly changed its construction from a series of 1×6 uprights topped with a dado joined 2×4, to just the uprights without the 2×4.

I didn’t see it until I ran out of 2×4 and had little time to do anything but bail out. I remember thinking I better jump over into the Stevens back yard, they were slow and old, and by the time the could do anything, I could have bailed over the fence back into my own back yard, and no one the wiser.

Dado cut

Except for the aloe vera plant, I would have pulled it off. Sailing by most of the large, old cactus, my forehead was gouged by a tip of one of the fronds, making a sizable dent in my forehead, which is still there, 40 odd years later.

You and I engage in fence straddling from time to time. Hesitation when asked about a religious question, maybe the occasional curse to impress someone that we too, are tough hombres. Lingered temptation on a web page, we all face them.

God knows this. He knows what’s best for us is to make a decision one way or another, without peer pressure, which for the Jews in Nehemiah’s day consisted chiefly to mixed marriages, which brought compromise.

And compromise always ends in being stung or poked or bleeding. Just ask any 10 year old fence straddler.

Summary / Thoughts

Nehemiah 7:1-7a His appointment of his brother helped in a crucial area. Chapter Six recorded much treachery by outsiders, and deep disappointments. Nehemiah needed a faithful reliable person to guard the city. Are we that person?Why would God put it in the heart of Nehemiah to enroll the city ion a census? Perhaps to discern who was Jewish. This would be important because

  • God said it was important especially for the priesthood Lev 21:7 Heb 7:26
  • God wanted a called out people group to b His possession and set apart from the nations so He could demonstrate His glory through a small group of people. Exo 19:5-6, Deut 26:18, Psa 135:4 
  • To illustrate to us that we as Christians are too a set apart people. Titus 2:14, 1 Pet 2:9
  • Marriages outside Jews had caused and continued to be a significant spiritual and security issue to Nehemiah. Eventually, he had to deal with the problem in a forceful way in chapter 11
Nehemiah 7:61-65 As discussed before, priests were not allowed to take Gentile wives or harlots. Lev 21:7, 14
Nehemiah 7:66-73 All in all, there were about 50,00 people including the help

Washed in the Word

Nehemiah 8:1-2 This is the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. the Feast of Trumpets. Later in the month, on the 10th, was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, for the sin of the nation, and after this the feast of Booths, Tabernacles. The fulfillment of this is the return of Jesus, see Mat 24:31, 1 Th 4:16-17 and 1 Cor 15:51-52Gathered as one man. A sign of the work of the Holy Spirit drawing them together. Eph 4:3-6. The term here is used as all being united for a angle purpose, to honor God through attentive hearing of His Word.
Nehemiah 8:3-8 This is the first mention of the term podium or platform.Standing up, hands lifted, in order to praise God. Bowing down low to worship Him. The difference? Praise is exuberant, and can be given to anyone deserving it for righteous acts. Worship, is for God alone (Luke 4:8). It is the undoing and handing over in complete surrender and acknowledging His lordship over us. (Psalm 95:6)

Translating it to give sense, many of the people did not know Hebrew, but rather Aramaic, and in some cases, the foreigners (wives of prioress, knew openly the language of the Philistines! Neh 13:24

This is also the purpose of the priest, to make application of the Word they heard, much like the purpose of the pastor/teacher of the church.
Nehemiah 8:9-12 The weeping was in response to convicted hearts by the reading of the Law. Mat 5:3-4, Romans 7:7. The Law has done its work in the people by bringing them to recognizing their sin.We tend to downplay this in our conversations, in the pulpit, in preaching the Gospel; it’s not an was topic to broach, but is is necessary, because if I speak to someone who I tell that Jesus can save them from their sin, they don’t think they have a problem. It takes the Law to show us that we are sinners, without the Law, the Gospel is a head scratcher to a non-believer.

The right thing to do afterward is party! Deu 12:7, 12 commands this, we are free, we are cleaned, and this is the proper mode of living, celebrating, and sharing this with those less well off Deu 26:11-13
Nehemiah 8:13-18 The people had not only turned back to the words of the Law, but it’s plain meaning and were obedient to it. Shavout was celebrated since the time of Joshua, but not in a Booth prescribed by God.This kind of obedience results in joy, really interpreting and being liberated by God’s Word, understood as it was intended to be understood, plain interpretation where warranted.

 

Memory Verse – They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. Nehemiah 8:8 

Application – Repent and grieve your sin, but then rejoice, you are bought and paid for!

Bible Studies, Hebrews

Hebrews Chapter 12

Leave a comment

Living Our Life of Faith 
How, What, and Where  to live in the light of faith in our Great High Priest is the theme of Hebrews 12. Our examples are Jesus, and the saints of faith before us. Our heritage and is an unshakable one, Heaven. 
Summary / Thoughts

Heb 12:1-3 – Jesus Our Super Model Simply: Shed sin. Shake it off like a lizard sheds his skin, like Paul shook off the snakebite of Acts 28:2-5Compare this with the kenosis of Phillipians 2. The emptying, the deprivation Jesus went through to lay aside is Godhood, AND voluntarily put up with the hostility of which we receive only a bare fraction.
Heb 12:4-11 – The Father, our Teacher Someone once remarked that he was glad to have been in the army, but wouldn’t want to do it again. Discipline is the same way, it’s necessary. It shows we are true sons (daughters) of God; it’s tough love in a sense. It perfects us, bringing us through the seminary of sorrow; it’s one thing to read a book about the hardships and suffering of others, it’s quite another to live it. Those in battle have  a unique shared experience in having together been shot at, there is little experience more uniting than that.And, we are disciplined to enter into that pure and set aside state of holiness, since the Father, through discipline, receive His holiness
Heb 12:12-17 – Our Brothers, our object of holiness Our response toward each other is how we live out the shaking off of sin. It says that we walk in the path of righteousness and peace. Look at Psalm 1:1-3 to see an example of this walk. What causes bitterness? Sometimes, unexpressed resentment of what another has or does, but always unvoiced. Deu 29:18 shows the root of bitterness is born out of the unbelief many had that God did not take car elf them, such that they turned to idols.
Heb 12:18-24 – Our Summit: Mt. Zion The image is of the time Moses went to Mt Sanai to receive the Law (Exodus 19 and 20). That terrible place was a place of death to the unclean. All were stay away.Mt. Zion, on the other hand, is the object of our journey, our gathering place. But really, both are the same in that only the spotless, and sinless may approach it.
Heb 12:25-29 – Our Unshakable Inheritance  His last warning concerning the call to faith in Christ by Christ. Although we draw to Mt. Zion, only the unshakable will endure, we who have our foundations in the Rock, Jesus, will be immovable. The dross, the man-made will not endure. And yes our God is a loving God, but He is also just, and will refine out the impure, at the end of the age. See also Haggai 2:6 from which this is quoted.

Memory Verse – All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:11

Application – Expect dicipline, encourage the family of God, run the whole race. 

Bible Studies, Hebrews

Hebrews Chapter 6

Leave a comment

The Importance of Spiritual Maturity
Teaching – This chapter is a parenthetical excursion from the development of Jesus Christ as High Priest, to the neglected area of spiritual maturity. The writer believed this was a stumbling stone to his audience because they were dull and hard of hearing. (Heb 5:11-12)

The first paragraph of this chapter is difficult to understand. There are several ways to understand it, and since the overriding subject of the chapter is spiritual maturity, it is no surprise that a difficult passage, requiring a bit of hard work and yes, spiritual maturity, is central to its understanding.
Simply Broken Out  Summary / Thoughts

Heb 5:11-14 The passage begins a detour to the spiritual maturity “train station.” He needs to call them to a sharp change of direction, otherwise they are in danger of foregoing salvation which can only come from faith, back to the old, deadness of the Law of Death. He accuses them of being babes and not even to late childhood, let alone adulthood!
Heb 6:1-3 The therefore is the linkage from Chapter 5’s exhortation to maturity. The word is teliotes, and can also be translated “perfection.” Dead works connotes the works we do outside the power of the Holy Spirit. All throughout the passage, the power of the Spirit in our goal is an absolute requirement, there is no getting around it. This idea is coupled with faith, not, as we shall see, a “foundation of repentance,” but to maturity.
Heb 6:4-6 There are at least three  understandings of what this means:
Arminians hold that the people described in these verses are Christians who actually lose their salvation. If this be so, notice that the passage also teaches that it is impossible to be saved a second time
Some hold that the passage refers not to genuine believers but to those who only profess to be believers. Thus the phrases in verses 4-5 are understood to refer to experiences short of salvation (cf. v. 9). The “falling away” is from the knowledge of the truth, not personal possession of it.
Others understand the passage to be a warning to genuine believers to urge them on in Christian growth and maturity. To “fall away” is impossible (since, according to this view, true believers are eternally secure), but the phrase is placed in the sentence to strengthen the warning.
Source: Ryrie Study notes, Heb 4:6
Heb 6:7-8 This is an analogy where we are the ground, and we either bear fruit or thistles. What is harvested, the fruit, or burned away, the thistles, is not us, but WHAT WE BEAR. Therefore, the passage here speaks not about losing salvation, but of rewards. It is vitally important tto go on to spiritual maturity, not to lay aside the gift of God, since this can lead to (apparently) permanent stunted spiritual growth. Mat 13:3-8 v 8 Note that  1 Cor 3:15 > The individual is CLOSE to being cursed.
Heb 6:9-12 This verse is critical in resolving the unclear meaning of verses 4-6.  A couple of things to consider:He speaks of things that accompany salvation, not sustain it! This jibes perfectly with James 2:17 (and the whole passage there in James); that the works are a manifestation of salvation, not the cause. “Though we are speaking in this way.” is an additional gentle chide and encouragement, as is verse 12.
Heb 6:13-20 The writer nows goes on after this pressing rebuke (from the end of Chapter 5), to reassure and encourage them not promising what he can do or show or give an attaboy, but by appealing to the nature of God as not being able to lie; consequently being good for His word. Te confidence of hope, real hope, capital H Hope. Unlike wishful thinking, it is sure, and brings confidence and amazing endurance to the mature believer.

 

Memory Verse – “Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.” Hebrews 6:9

Application – How will you live out what you have learned?