The 260 Journey

Day 96

Today’s Reading: Acts 7

One of my favorite books by C. S. Lewis is called God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. In it, he includes a chapter called “Cross Examination,” which is a question and answer time with Professor Lewis. One of the questions: "Do you think there will be widespread travel in space?" His response: “I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness. . . . I can’t bear to think of it.”

Of alien life, George Bernard Shaw noted, “The longer I live, the more I am inclined to the belief that this earth is used by other planets as its lunatic asylum.”

But my favorite is Rick Warren’s statement: “If UFO aliens are so smart, why do they kidnap the dumbest people on earth?”

Today we’re talking about aliens, but let me tell you about the aliens I am referring to. They aren’t from Mars or Venus, they’re from right here in Acts 7. The word alien has become familiar today with all the debate surrounding our southern borders and the wall. But that’s the word I want us to see here in Acts 7.

It is from a sermon that Stephen preached. This sermon is the second longest sermon in the New Testament, next to the Sermon on the Mount. Stephen will not end his sermon with music, an altar call, or a challenge. This sermon will end with his listeners being so angry that they stone him to death.

The longest part of his sermon speaks about Moses and the alien issue. I want to show you how God’s man and God’s deliverer became an alien before he became a deliverer. Stephen recounted, “At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons” (Acts 7:29).

Think of that: a remark changed Moses’ life. The remark was, “Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” (Acts 7:28, MSG). The back story is that Moses started to feel his calling rise up when he saw an Egyptian abuse a Jewish slave. He killed the Egyptian and expected his people to celebrate. Instead they criticized. And then someone made the remark, which made Moses flee and become an alien.

Our words have life and death to them. As Proverbs 18:21 reminds us: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” The Message says it like this: “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.”

What have you heard that has lodged in your soul? What word have you heard that changed what you are and where you are today? Who spoke those words to you? Has someone said something to you that has changed you into something you never wanted to be?

Someone can be one crazy comment away from becoming an alien.

It happened to Moses: “At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien.” Twenty-four words changed royalty into a fugitive and an alien at forty years old. A remark took him from the palace and put him in the desert. The words brought fear and put him on the run.

Have you ever heard life-altering words?

You will never be anything.
You’re stupid.
You aren’t even my real child.
You were a mistake.
You are just like your father.
I hate you.
I wish I never had you.

People’s hearts are so fragile and people’s words are so careless. When fragile and careless intersect, you get aliens—people becoming something they never intended to become.

The opposite happens when life words are spoken.

I love you.
I’m proud of you.
I was thinking of you.
I’m praying for you.

Those are life words.

Some of these words you have never heard, I have never heard, our youth have never heard, but we can change that today. When life words are spoken, huge life comes to them.

There is a place in Sydney, Australia, called "The Gap." You don’t buy clothes there for your teenager. You go there if you want to commit suicide. It’s a rocky cliff where people jump off. Don and Moya Ritchie live next to The Gap, and for almost fifty years, the Ritchies saved an estimated 160 people from certain death. Every morning as soon as Don woke up, he would look out their window to see if anyone was standing all alone too close to the edge. If he sensed someone contemplating suicide, he approached them and asked if there was something he could do to help them, hoping for an opportunity to “sell them” on life.

“Be [kind],” says Rev. John Watson, “for every man is fighting a hard battle.” How can we help people with heavy hearts today? We can speak life. Proverbs 12:25 tells us that “anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.”

Give someone a life word today. Text it. Say it. Write it. You don’t know what it will mean to them.

Day 95

Today’s Reading: Acts 6

God sees beyond anything we can ever see. That’s why the Bible is quick to point out to us in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. That’s important for us to remember as we look at today’s reading in Acts 6, because this is where the early church starts to get organized. It’s all brand new for them, as there has never been a church before.

I heard it said before: “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t go anywhere.” Well, the church had obstacles . . . and they were going somewhere. They were on a path to change the world.

Growth means life. But growth also means more people, and where there are more people, there are more problems. This is exactly what we find in Acts 6:1: “At this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.”

I have heard people say that we need a church today like the early church. I know they don’t mean exactly what they are saying. They want the presence of the Holy Spirit but they forget that the early church had problems too. By Acts 5 and 6, the church already had people lying about the offering and dying and really upset widows who were not getting any food and being overlooked, and the implication was racism. The upset widows were Hellenistic and the widows who had food were Jewish. That’s the early church. They had their problems, but they also had leadership responsible to deal with it well.

That is our focus in today’s reading—how they dealt with this issue. The disciples knew this problem was not simply telling the people to start feeding the Hellenistic widows, it was also a great lesson on leadership and delegation: do what only you can do and not what others can contribute. So in response to this issue, they decided to choose the first deacons of the church. And this point is key: remember that His ways are higher than our ways. People need to be fed and served:

The twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-4)

Pick people who have a good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom.

God has higher ways. It would have been easy to look for those who had been in the restaurant business, worked as a waiter or maître'd or a race relations person. I’m thinking of the issue at hand and trying to connect the issue with experience. But God’s ways are higher.

God says we need to be Spirit-filled and we need wisdom and a good reputation. Why? Because God is higher and He sees further down the road and knows what we need. Because the requirements will be a weapon we can use later on.

Why these requirements?

It seems that the enemy knew that the Twelve were willing to die for their faith in God, so he had to attack the next level of leaders, which he did. It didn’t take long for these deacons to come under attack just as the twelve apostles had:

The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” (Acts 6:7-11)

The deacons’s three requirements would become their three weapons to fight the enemy’s attacks.

The widow issue was fixed. The church was still growing and even a great many priests were becoming born again. And that made the religious institution really upset, so they attacked the next level of leadership, and Stephen was in the crosshairs of their attack.

And this is amazing. When the religious leaders rose up to fight them, they were unable to cope with Stephen’s wisdom and the Spirit. Sound familiar from the verse 2 requirements?

We are still not done! They hired people to spread lies about Stephen (verse 11). But they had a problem with that: Stephen had a good reputation. That means all three requirements became weapons to fight their attacks.

When you see God giving prerequisites to a task, whether that be in pastoring, lay leadership, or even in marriage, it is because God sees further, and what you think is going to be a bother is going to be useful in the future. When God says not to marry an unbeliever (a prerequisite for a successful Christian marriage), but you are dead-set on marrying that person, you just lost your weapon for marriage. Marriage is hard enough, but to have two different worldviews for life and children? That’s almost impossible.

And by the way, when the devil thought only the apostles were willing to die for their faith, he got that way wrong! Stephen was all in and willing to lay his life on the line. As we’ll read tomorrow in Acts 7, Stephen died for Jesus. The first Christian martyr was a deacon.

It’s really easy to find people who know the truth. It’s really hard to find people who will stand up for the truth. No matter the cost.

You can’t skip steps with God. When God gives a requirement, it’s for a weapon. What you think is cumbersome is really armor.

Day 94

Today’s Reading: Acts 5

Ananias and Sapphira are well known in church history. For those unfamiliar with their catastrophic ending, listen closely as we discuss Acts 5. They are a couple who sold some real estate, brought a portion of the money for the offering at church, and were called out by Peter and judged by God on the spot.

Listen to the scariest offering section of a church service ever:

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his last; and great fear came over all who heard of it. The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him. (Acts 5:1-6)

After Ananias’s death, the same thing happened to his wife. We must guard against our services being fireplaces and fireworks and not fire from heaven. God is not a fireplace who simply warms you and makes you feel comfortable while at the same time you still stay a distance from the hearth. The fireplace is contained and controlled. Meeting Him in the church service is not fireworks either. It is not just a show with “oohs” and “aahs” and then everyone goes home in the same condition they came. Both of these create an illusion of fire but is not the real thing. We must have a place where fire from heaven falls.

That was the early church, and this was definitely Acts 5 where the fire fell in the offering time.

Why the harsh penalty for not giving the amount they were supposed to give in the offering? I think it’s connected to the word but, the first word of chapter 5. It connects it to chapter 4 and the last few verses. That day during the offering another person gave and was called out for good reasons, and his name was Barnabas. The story makes sense if we read the ending of Acts 4:

Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. (Acts 4:36-37)

Barnabas sold property and brought all the money to the offering that day. Then the contrast. I believe Ananias and Sapphira saw what Barnabas had done and decided to put on a show instead of being genuine. They acted like Barnabas but had hypocrisy in their hearts. God could not allow in this newborn church such craziness, and He exposed it.

On the outside, Barnabas and Ananias looked the same: both sold property, both brought money, both laid it at the apostles’ feet. But both were not the same. God knew their hearts.

Something may look exactly the same but be drastically different. And God gave Peter discernment to know that difference immediately.

I have to tell you that to read this on paper is scary. What if you were an outsider and reading about this in the Jerusalem Times under a headline that read “People Who Lie Die?” I would be scared about that church.

Yet here is what is amazing: people want the real thing. They don’t want the fireplace or the fireworks, they want the real fire of God. And when we read the Bible, God’s fire will lead us through a wilderness and baptize us just like in Acts 2. But that same fire will kill people, like Aaron’s sons in Leviticus and Ananias and Sapphira. Either way it’s real.

So here is what happened after the two deaths during the offering: “All the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number” (Acts 5:14).

Instead of it being called some cult thing, the unbelievers knew it was the real thing. It seems the world always knows whether it’s real or phony. And just when we think that a public discipline of a member happens, that the verse would say, “A lot of people left the church, and everyone in town stayed away,” just the opposite happened. Verse 11 says that “great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.” I bet it did!

I can imagine how big the offering was the next week, and then the Bible says multitudes were getting saved. That to me shows that when God is in the mix, people know it’s real. Whether it’s a sign or a wonder of healing or of God judging hypocrisy, we need more of the real thing today.

Day 93

Today's Reading: Acts 4

Today’s reading in Acts 4 is connected to a miracle story in Acts 3. In Acts 3, Peter and John prayed for a man they had seen every day at the temple, but this time with the fresh power from the Holy Spirit they received in Acts 2, they see this lame man walk and he's healed. Peter and John told the people that Jesus did this miracle.

That’s where we pick up our story in Acts 4. The people who saw the miracle and heard their story became Christians—5,000 of them! But there was another group listening who did not believe:

As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. (Acts 4:1-3)

The miracle and the message landed Peter and John in jail. And after questioning them, this is what happened:

When they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20)

The authorities told Peter and John not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Let me say this about the Christian and our government. Talking about Romans 13, pastor John R. W. Stott says that “we are to submit right up to the point where obedience to the state would entail disobedience to God.” At that point our Christian duty is to disobey the state in order to obey God. If the state misuses its God-given authority either to command what God forbids or to forbid what God commands, we have to say no to the state in order to say yes to Christ. As John Calvin said, “Obedience to man must not become disobedience to God.”

And that is where this story lands us. The Jewish authorities told Peter and John they could no longer speak in the name of Jesus, which has to be a no to the state to say yes to Christ. And Peter says "that's impossible. We don't have the ability to not speak," Peter says, “We cannot stop.”

Dr. E. V. Hill, one of the great Baptist preachers preached on this moment when Peter challenged the “no speaking” rule of the courts:

Peter spoke up and said, “You’ll have to judge whether or not we should obey you or obey God. But as for us, we have a condition, and it’s contagious and it’s called ‘can’t-help-it.’ We couldn’t stop if we wanted to. We could not stop in spite of your threats. We are not spectators; we are participators. No matter how you have threatened us and forbidden us to preach by this name, we will continue to do it, because we can’t help it. This isn’t something we can cut on and off. . ."

“We were with Jesus when He turned the water to wine. We were right there with Him when He hollered to Lazarus to come forth. . . . We were there when He gave sight to the blind. Don’t tell us to shut up; we’ve got evidence.” They said that on that basis they were going to keep on preaching Jesus. “We can’t help it.”

You and I need that “can’t help it” condition too. We all do.

Day 92

Today's Reading: Acts 3

When a big event is over and life starts up again, how do we cope? How does that look? Or how do we look?

After an inspiring Sunday church service, Monday will be there. Monday is always coming. There will be no lights, no band, no greeters at the door, no hugging . . . because it’s Monday and we have a job and a schedule to keep.

The biggest event in church history after the cross and resurrection is the day the Holy Spirit fell upon the church—called the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church, which we read about in Acts 2. Fire touched them, the church was started, and people were changed.

And what came after, which we read about in Acts 3, is monumental. It is a great guide for us on how to look at Mondays:

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. (Acts 3:1-8)

Look at verse 1 again: “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.” After the most powerful move of God in the church, the church went back on schedule.

The ninth hour is 3 p.m., the normal hour of prayer in the Jewish culture. God put them back on schedule. They started attending the normal prayer meeting. That is insightful. They became 3 p.m. Christians.

What is a 3 p.m. Christian? It is a Christian who was touched by the Holy Spirit in a special setting but now takes that new touch and brings it into their everyday environment and schedule. They are new people in the same old place. A 3 p.m. Christian comes to the same places with a different heart and different perspective. God doesn’t change places, He changes the person.

Acts 3 determines if Acts 2 is real. Real life determines if the experience and change are real. Monday behavior is a great test of Sunday inspiration.

What happened to the disciples? One thing that was very noticeable was that the ordinary started to look extraordinary. They received new eyes. That lame man wasn’t new, he had been placed there every day from the time he was a kid. They passed that guy, but today he looked different. He looked like a candidate for a miracle.

One of the best tests for us is that we will notice people: when God touches us, then we love people—not just God—better. It isn’t a true work of God if we don’t treat people better. The ordinary and the common should start looking different—from the people in Starbucks to our spouses and our kids to our bosses to our coworkers.

God didn’t change you for church. God changed you for life—everyday life, Monday life. He changed you to be a 3 p.m. Christian.