The Truth Prevails

"But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke." Acts 6:10

The person spoken of in this verse is Stephen. Stephen was one of the first ministry leaders or deacons in the early church. An earlier verse says he was “full of grace and power”. He was a hardworking, exemplary, bold spokesperson for the cause of Christ.
There are a few especially dedicated individuals who are describes specifically in the Book of Acts of the Apostles. Stephen was such a follower of Christ and so compelling and effective that he became the first martyr. Stephen was stoned to death for preaching Christ’s resurrection. It should be noted that a young Pharisee named Saul (who after his conversion was named Paul), gave approval of his killing. Wow, the interwoven plot and teaching of the Word of God thickens, doesn’t it?

Listen to Me!

"Then the high priest asked Stephen, "Are these charges true?" To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran." Acts 7:1-2

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.

God Is In Control

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:" Ecclesiastes 3:1

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

Filled with the Holy Spirit Again

"After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." Acts 4:11

As I write devotionals through the Book of Acts, I am struck by the details that come to light when I read longer sections of scripture. Some of the events that happened with the disciples are well known and others are less often taught or covered in Bible studies. This verse happens after Peter and John report back to the early believers about their experience before the Sanhedrin. The priests had instructed them to not speak the name of Jesus. Of course, they said they could not stop. Peter and John then go back to their own people and shared their hearts, to which the believers quote scripture about how rulers will gather against the Lord. Then a prayer is made on behalf of all asking God to stretch out His hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of His holy servant Jesus. At the end of that prayer, the room shakes and all are filled with the Holy Spirit and each one spoke the word boldly.

One Heart and One Mind

"All the believers were one in heart and mind." Acts 5:32

Unity is one of the most powerful forces possible. In order for unity to take place and be maintained there must be mutual surrender to a commonality. That common ground can only be Christ. He is the head of the Body, and when all surrender to Him as head, He can draw together everyone in that wonderful thing called unity. When we are in "one accord" as some versions read, all pettiness, division, disharmony, acrimony, personal agenda and politics can be put aside. This phenomenon happens when pastors, leaders and people agree to make Him the most important thing. We must always keep the main thing, the main thing. All other opinions and preferences must be subject to Christ's control. Someone might say, 'o.k. BUT, who then gets to make decisions? All decisions must be made prayerfully and with careful consideration of guidance from His Word. Whenever any group of humans tries to work together for the Lord there can and will be conflict. The prayerful and humble resolution of conflict in the spirit of unity is an amazing process to see. I have experienced it a number of times and I must say it is awesome to watch God's Spirit move in a group of brothers and sisters. I also must confess that it is a lot easier to experience unity either when there is tremendous success or progress or especially when there is tremendous persecution or attack. People rally together when they are advancing or when they have to defend the main thing.

Believers

"In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)…]" Acts 1:15

Parenthetical words are important. In this case, the purpose of this particular set of parentheses is to modify the word ‘believers’ and put emphasis on it, clarifying how many that actually was. Luke (the writer of Acts) gives us an approximate number of 120. I wonder what we can derive from this number? Numbers are funny. Sometimes statistics can be vitally important, at other times they don’t accurately account for what is really important. I have both minimized and maximized the numbers whether it is church attendance, or giving, or baptisms, or participants in a ministry or activity.

Sharing

"No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." Acts 4:13b

For such a short and succinct verse there are a few little sensitive subjects herein; personal ownership, private property, sharing and the concept of 'everything'. As those who live in the most prosperous nation ever we, are motivated often by capitalistic and entrepreneurial themes to an extreme. The idea of personal responsibility loses its depth of meaning if it ends up being "money-grubbing" or "selfish". Ownership can be a good thing as long as we don't start rubbing our hands together and saying, "Mine! Mine! It's all mine!!" There is a small space on the attitude continuum between frugal and unwilling to share.

Isaiah 41:10

"Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." Isaiah 41:10

Do you ever open your bible at the end of the day (especially if it has been a rough day) and then God just really speaks to your heart ?? Well that happened to me last night…….i was tired, not feeling well and when I opened my bible to Isaiah this is what God spoke to me……….

Never Stop

"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ." Acts 5:42

This is one of those verses that needs phrase by phrase brief illustration to make a few points. Remember, this is taking place in the midst of persecution and immediately following Peter and John, and the other apostles being flogged. We should take this verse and what the apostles did to heart and imitate them.

How Easy to Overlook

"In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food." Acts 6:1

Don’t ever presume that the early church had fewer problems than we do, today. Where there are people, there are problems. The complaint department was just as busy 2,000 years ago. Whether there was rampant inequality or favoritism in this case, the trouble was created by numerical growth, plus the combining of groups of people who hadn’t been together before. These dynamics not only create logistical issues, they also put pressure on closed systems. Fairness and equal access to ministry programs were also problematic in the Old Testament times.

Bloodguilt

"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said, "and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Acts 5:28

The 'name' being referred to in this verse is the name of Jesus. The reference to 'this man' at the end of the verse also refers to Jesus. Early believers had been commanded by the Jews, (you see at this time Christianity is still seen as a sect of Judaism) not to speak of the name of Jesus. The apostles were determined to spread the gospel of the Messiah all throughout Jerusalem and to teach the good news of salvation. The Jewish leaders saw this as an effort to pin on them the death of Jesus. Who is responsible for the death of Jesus anyway? Nobody wants to be saddled with the guilt of His blood, especially His blood.

If It Is From God

"Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." Acts 5:38-39

These are the words of Gamaliel, a Pharisee who is trying to keep peace and buy time, because he knows, how popular the disciples were and feared the people would riot, if the disciples were killed. If you read ahead, they heed Gamaliel’s advice to a degree and only flogged the Apostles. (I know this is less severe than killing them, but still, a steep price to pay for spreading the Gospel).

The Full Message

"At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people." Acts 5:21

The first interesting thing about this verse that should be told is that it was an angel who told them to teach in the temple courts. The angel had opened the doors of the jail they had been thrown into after they were arrested for healing people in Jesus name, and spreading the good news.

Believe in the Lord

"Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their numbers." Acts 5:14

As is the case with the word ‘therefore’, the word nevertheless deserves explanation at the beginning of the sentence. So not only would I answer what the therefore is therefore, nevertheless, I will also explain. Prior to the verse there are many healings, miracles of every description and powerful happenings and though the early church was highly regarded they were also a bit feared, in a respected way. Even though folks were a little leery and cautious of the spiritual power manifested in the early church there were many more coming to Christ and believing on Jesus for salvation.

Testing the Spirit of the Lord

"Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?" Acts 5:9

There are not many more shocking accounts in the early church than the story of Ananias and Sapphira. It was fairly common practice for people to donate the proceeds of property sales to the apostles for expanding the ministry, and specifically to help with the needs of the poor. This was done with transparency, integrity, generosity, and without fanfare. Bomabas, (Paul’s later missionary partner) and the others had done this. Stan Spaulding is a recent example of the kind of modern day donor, who left the value of his estate to Grace Harbor last year, for the purpose of expanding the ministry of the Church and School. The amount of value is not important, but the heart and attitude of the giver and their purpose is what is the blessing.

Constantly in Prayer

"They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." Acts 1:14

At Grace Harbor Church, we from time to time hold a prayer vigil. The 3 primary goals of these events are to: 1. Lift up Grace Harbor Ministries before the Lord for His guidance and blessing. 2. Bind our hearts together in unity to glorify Him. 3. Provide an opportunity for everyone to participate however they can.

It Figures

" In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)" Acts 3:6

Parenthetical words are important. In this case, the purpose of this particular set of parentheses is to modify the word ‘believers’ and put emphasis on it, clarifying how many that actually was. Luke (the writer of Acts) gives us an approximate number of 120. I wonder what we can derive from this number? Numbers are funny. Sometimes statistics can be vitally important, at other times they don’t accurately account for what is really important. I have both minimized and maximized the numbers whether it is church attendance, or giving, or baptisms, or participants in a ministry or activity. An old friend of mine from over 30 years ago, stood up in a church business meeting after a financial presentation and reminded everyone in no uncertain terms that his daddy, Floyd Knorr Sr. always said that "liars figure and figures lie." I am not sure what his real point was other than that he didn’t totally trust the members or their source. Well, the meeting fell apart, people got real heated, and no decisions were made.

Biblical Humor

"Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!" Acts 2:13-15

After the Holy Spirit came upon them, the early believers were able to speak in languages they did not know, in order to reach all the people visiting from around the world in Jerusalem on that miraculous day. For lack of explanations as to how that could happen, a rumor spread through the crowds that they were drunk with wine and it somehow, as they say, “was the liquor talking”. Of course, this was not true and in order to squelch the rumor, Peter gets everyone’s attention to say it is not true and before he explains with a prophecy from the Book of Joel, adds a little note of humor by saying in essence…….”Hey everybody, these men aren’t drunk, it’s only nine in the morning.” I love his use of humor to reverse the misunderstanding. It was way too early to be drunk. Now, if it were happy hour I could see what you were saying, but nine in the morning, get serious. Nobody is drunk this early unless you have a real problem. When people believe you are believable it gives more credibility to what you say. The use of humor is an effective tool to break the ice, connect and be personable with a crowd or just one person. It was as though Peter used the rumor to make a joke so he could have their attention for what he really needed to say.

Acting in Ignorance

"Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders." Act 3:17

Peter does not struggle with being frank. As a matter of fact, he often has been represented as being too brash and we know of several times in the Bible where he spoke before he thought carefully about what he was saying. But, that doesn’t mean that what he says every time should be seen as brash, when all he is being is frank and to the point. It is o.k. to say to someone is in error, when they are. We should, of course, be kind with our honesty, and careful with how and when, and where we share it. When Peter addresses those who don’t believe he says, “Now, brothers”. This is a warm and engaging introduction to what he says next. He is referring to people who rejected Christ, or called for His crucifixion, or supported leaders who did so. Ignorance is no excuse as the saying goes, but it does soften the conversation enough to allow someone to say they didn’t know, to which we can respond, “now that you do know…..!” I think suggesting that someone was ignorant or didn’t know, isn’t like saying they are dumb or stupid. It says simply that had you known Jesus was who He said He was, you would have acted or responded differently. Besides, leaders you trusted and believed passed their ignorance on to you. Peter is adept at putting it bluntly or as a matter of fact, without alienating anyone from the get go. And….if people feel they weren’t ignorant, they can say they just decide to reject Christ. We tend to not get to the point. Either you believe or you don’t. If you are ignorant, get informed, if you actually know what you don’t accept, then understand the consequences of that choice, whether you believe it or not. What could we say to people who reject Christ? We should accept their rejection and remind them the offer is always available. Most often, we deal with those who are weak or misled or faltering in their faith, which need to be informed more, so they can’t claim ignorance. Jesus loves you. Accept or reject that, but you can’t be ignorant anymore. When you share with others, cut them enough slack to be able to plant seeds in them for future watering. But, do make a point so ignorance will never be our excuse.