Acts 4 ... Boldly Wanting (Pt. 3/3)

29And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Our church has wrestle these past 2 years on whether we should "pursue" signs and wonders. We've been on that pursuit before, without nary any wisdom or humility, or even purpose for pursuing such things other than it was exciting to see God tangibly. But in Acts the community had a very good reason to ask for such signs. To them it wasn't just about seeing more of God, it wasn't even about strengthening each other and blessing the church, it was about backing the message of Jesus' sovereign grace. The disciples have always recgonized Jesus' grace as real and tangible, as Matthew saw him doing in Matthew 8:16-17

16That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases."

Matthew attributed more than spiritual deliverance to the famed words in Isaiah 53. This isn't to say we are to dazzle people to salvation, v29 says these signs and wonders happen while people speak God's Word with all boldness. And boldness, as we saw with Peter and the council (and pretty much all of Peter's sermons up to that point), included saying not so "loving" things. But some of us, myself included, closed our hearts to the desire of God showing up. For me it was because I're scared of the mistakes that I had made in pursuing these things before. A lot of us are opened to the idea of proclaiming God's Word. But this passage shows us that the first church was eager to not just to explain the kingdom of God to people, but to see it happen, to see salvation happen.

14But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

There's just no trash talking when God actually happens! No arguments, no academics, just jaw dropping awe. I believe God wants to back us when we say that His grace is awesome. God responds to their prayers by shaking the place up. God gave them exactly what they asked for, as if to say, "yes, I have heard you, and I will be there just like I'm here now!", and healings signs and miracles continue to happen in Acts. God responded to people desiring to proclaim his kingdom as a real thing, not just in the next life, but here and now.

Acts 4 ... Boldly Going (Pt. 2/3)

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

This is a bit of a tangent from the chapter, but beyond just talking about Jesus, do people recgonize that you've been with Jesus?

What was astonishing, what was the standout characteristic about the leaders of the early church was that they were regular folk, not priests or pharisees or teachers of the Law (our cultural equivalents being pastors, theologians, full time ministry people), and that they've been with Jesus. I had to wrestle with this one a lot because I'm innately a teacher, and apart from being know for my past of easily being angered, I'm known for explaining and articulating stuff. But I had to admit that what was powerful about the early church wasn't what they could explain about Jesus. What was astonishing was that ordinary people could proclaim/live/love as bold, supernatural witness of Jesus Christ. And this wasn't just restricted to the people who were literally with Jesus, God was responding throughout the entire community in tangible ways. Later on he would shake up a prayer meeting where they were asking for more of this boldness!

It wasn't their theology that was rocking people, it was their testimony. 1 Peter describes the body of Christ as a "chosen people, a royal prisethood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light". Does that sound like it's centered around knowledge and understanding? Or does that sound like a people who are celebrating and walking with God?

I'm not saying teaching is not important, or studying the word is not important. It's God's word, we need to know it. I'm just saying that walking with God, being with Jesus, obeying and pleasing him, is even more important. That's why I've been talking about obedience all the time, because for one, if I have no desire to obey God, no desire to bear fruit, how can I be sure the Holy Spirit is in me (Galatians 5:21-23)? And if the Holy Spirit is the seal, the proof, of our salvation (Ephesians 1:12-14), and if I don't know if I have the Holy Sprit then I don't know when I'm at with Jesus. But that's a whole different sermon. More relevant to what we're talking about today, I believe obedience is the best teacher of all. Nothing enlightens a passage more than when it becomes reality in your life, and for me that has happened most when I've obey the Holy Spirit's desire and motivation to please God.

Are we seeking to just be well educated in things of Jesus Christ or are we actually walking with God? Are we actually witnesses of the gospel or am I just explaining it? That of course requires that we stop just studying about Jesus, but we need seek to go somewhere with Jesus, to live our lives in simple, joyful obedience. We have to pursue that if we haven't had anything in that regard.

Um, about those CCF rants......

Man, I was reading those over today, and just had to laugh about how unbelievably bitter I was. What a wonder the Holy Spirit can do in anyone! And while I still believe in a selected few of those opinions (I still think guys need to be guys, and leaders need to listen to God, and musical praise should be about....praise lol), a ton of that is just my bitterness picking fights. So yeah, whoever is reading this (this a reminder to myself too), face reality, face trials, face mistakes, face failures WITH people, not AGAINST people.

When Sin Looks More Enjoyable Than God

Lukewarm and Loving It

Slavery Can Be Fun

Sequel to "Lukewarm and Loving It!"

Is This Really Church?

The Joy of Suffering

Acts 4 ... Boldly Speaking (Pt. 1/3)

8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, 9if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Peter does this warning every time he preaches, said it to the crowd at pentecost, said it to the crowd after the lame man was healed, now says it to the council that's questioning them the same way they questioned Jesus. There's this theme of you messed up, but God saw that coming, and he's prepared a way for you to be saved from his wrath.

Sometimes we present the gospel like people's lives are pretty good already, but if they just received Jesus, their lives would be that much better. Peter's messages didn't quite sound like that, he made people's rejection of God plain to them, and that "there is salvation is no one else". The gospel isn't about how much better your life would be with Jesus, but that we messed up, that we don't don't have life at all apart from Christ.

Jesus said that he will separate the wheat and chaff (what's leftover after the valuable wheat is gone) and will throw the chaff into unquencable fire (Watt 3). Jesus said the worthless servant, who did nothing with what the master gave him, will be thrown out of his property, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25). Jesus says that he will separate the sheep to his right and goats on his left, and those on the left will be thrown into eternal fire (Matt 25).

Hell is real! I know we don't want to talk about it, good grief even I don't want to talk about it. We all want to think that Jesus is all nice and peaceful and cuddly. But he said himself that hell is real, that He would be the one who judges who goes there. Some of you here are not followers of Jesus, and really I don't want to have to be the one to say that you by your nature have chosen against God, and that because God being in nature God, you choice will have consequences, and those consequences are described here in His word. Telling you that stuff doesn't feel good to me! I'd rather us come and sing some songs and just leave it at that. But I know that's the most loving thing I could say to you this afternoon, that Jesus died hanging on 2 pieces of wood, He rose from that death and made a way for you to choose God, and the journey to that reunion with Him can start today if you so wished.

To those of you who are sure you are followers of Jesus, how much do you have to hate someone to not warn them about hell? Jesus doesn't just enhance our lives, he saves from certain eternal damnation. Saying that is not judgement, it's the same truth and you and I live by, the very thing we want people to be saved from. The question to you guys though, is do you believe in hell enough that you'd warn people about it? That you'd plead with people not to go there?

Some of you know that I went to Hong Kong in April. And one afternoon when me and Dorothy were touring the beaches with my oldest uncle, he mentioned that we should probably pay our grandparent's grave a visit. You could sense the hesitation in his voice. He was Catholic, and was clearly uncomfortable with the pagan stuff that surrounded the grave sites (they have separate pagan and Christian semetaries in HK). I figured why not, we could at least pray when we're there. Then I thought about, well, what am I praying for exactly? My grandparents wanted nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with righteousness, and as much as I don't want to fully acknowledge it or think about it, I know they're in hell. And my mom's family has long since gotten over it. So what exactly is there left to pray for? Then God brought my mind to Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

I just remembered this story, especially the part about the rich man's reaction to hell. He just wanted a drop of water, but when he was denied that what did he want instead? He desperatedly wanted someone to warn his brothers. He begged that someone would go and tell his loved one not to go down his path.

The gospel isn't the cherry on top. Apostle Paul said that we've been given a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5)

"that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

We are called to more than just bless/"love" people, we are called to help reconcile people to God. And so we need to tell people they need to be reconciled, that they are far from God, that they've chosen against God, and they need to know the consequences.