02/08/2021 – Day 267 – Acts Chapter 1 thru 2 ; 1 of ? // Christ is risen! // I don’t have nearly enough faith to be an atheistic! (or any other worldview for that matter)
Buckle up, we are in the first of a fourteen week monday study of the book of acts. We finish our one year study five days after our last segment of Acts.
I am ending my post actually in this 2nd paragraph. No way did I get through my summary notes for this post. This is why I post : “1 of ?” And to a previous post a few months back as I recall, I will just repeat myself: It sure is a good thing that we have an eternity to get to know God, because that is about how long it is going to take for us to accomplish that objective in His perfect and unfathomable kingdom! (“E.T. – Home!”)
Here is another book I highly recommend: “Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K Tacelli. ISBN reference # 978-0-8308-2702-2. This little handbook, under 150 pages, is power packed. You can physically read it in a day but I argue rather for a page a day, by your bedside table. You may be up awhile though reading, thinking, reflecting and praying through that one page, and it will soon be a habit.
Peter’s sermon on Pentecost emphasized the resurrection, just after he preached to his devout Jewish audience on the Law and sin, our sin, all of us, for putting Yeshua (Jesus) on the cross!
Let me quote you just two paragraphs on page 70 of the resurrection chapter:
“The existential consequences of the resurrection can be seen by comparing the disciples before and after. Before they huddled behind locked doors in fear and confusion. After, they were tranformed from scared rabbits into confident saints, world-changing missionaries and courageous martyrs. (Jimmy note: Tradition has it that all but John died a martyr’s death. Is it possible for so many Christian warriors to lay down their life so willingly for what they knew deep down to be a lie?)
The greatest importance of the resurrection is not in the past — “Christ rose” — but in the present — “Christ is risen” The angel at the tomb asked the women, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24:5). The same question could be asked today of more historians and scholars. If only we did not keep Christ mummified in a casket labeled “history” or “apologetics,” he would set our lives and world afire as powerfully as he did two millennia ago. This is the existential import of the resurrection.”
Also, briefly on page 77:
“Julius Muller challenged his nineteenth – century contemporaries to produce a single example anywhere in history of a great myth or legend arising around a historical figure and being generally believed within thirty years after that figures death. No one has ever answered him.”
And why is that? Paul recounts some of the names of the 500 witnesses to Yeshua’s resurrection. Wouldn’t just one of those eye witnesses step forward and say, “No, that is not true!” particularly if it were to a Jewish Sanhedrin audience , where they might even be materially rewarded for their comments. Don’t you know there were people going to those witnesses to ask them if it were true what Paul said. Were you a witness to this?
Now, I am crossing over to the William Barclay’s “The Acts of the Apostles” commentary, under page 18, “The Day of Pentecost” – subtitle: “The Coming of the Spirit: “It is perhaps unfortunate that we so often speak of the events at Pentecost as the coming of the Holy Spirit. The danger is that we may think that the Holy Spirit came into existence at that time. That is not so: Got is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact Acts makes that quite clear, the Holy Spirit was speaking in David (Acts 1:16); the Spirit spoke through Isaiah (Acts 28:25): Stephen accuses the Jews of having , all through their history, opposed the Spirit (Acts 7:51). In that sense, the Spirit is God God in every age revealing his truth to men. At the same time something special happened at Pentecost.
The Work of the Spirit In Acts
From that moment the Holy Spirit became the dominant reality in the life of the early Church.
For one thing, the Holy Spirit was the source of all guidance. …. (multiple Acts bible verses referenced for support)…
For another thing, all the leaders of the Church were men of the Spirit. The Seven are men of the Spirit (Acts 6:3); Stephen and Barnabas are full of the Spirit (Acts 7:55; 11:24). Paul tells the elders at Ephesus that it was the Spirit who made them overseers over the Church of God. (Acts 20:28).
For still another thing, The Spirit was the source of day to day courage and power. (Jimmy note – This is what Voddie was referring to when he said we had weapons in spiritual warfare that wield unfathomable power against the enemy. See his last sermon that I posted)) …..(multiple Acts references once again here)… The Christian courage to meet the dangerous situation, the Christian power to cope with life more than adequately , the Christian eloquence when eloquence is needed (Jimmy: How much natural eloquence do you thing Peter, the fisherman from Galilee had?), the Christian joy which is independent of circumstances are all ascribed to work of the Holy Spirit.
For a last thing, Acts 5:32 speaks of the Spirit ‘whom God has given to those who obey him.’ This has in it the great truth that the measure of the Spirit which a man can possess is conditioned by the kind of man he is. It means that the man who is honestly trying to do the will of God will experience more and more of the wonder of the Spirit.
In the first thirteen chapters of Acts there are more than forty references to the Holy Spirit; the early Church was a Spirit-filled Church and that was the source of its power.
pg 10 of Barclay’s again: “Above all, there is an immortality of presence and of power, Jesus not only left an immortal name and influence, he is still alive and still active. He is not the one who was; he is the one who is. “I am”.
This passage (Jimmy: Opening 1:1 – 1:5) tells us how the Church was empowered to do that by the work of the Holy Spirit. We often call the Holy Spirit the Comforter. That word goes back to Wycliff; but in Wycliff’s day it had a different meaning. It comes from the Latin fortis, which means brave; the Comforter is the one who fills men with courage and strength. In the book of Acts, indeed all through the New Testatment, it is very difficult to draw a line between the work of the Spirit and the work of the Risen Christ; and we do not need to do so, for the coming of the Spirit is the fulfillment of the promise of Jesus, ‘Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)
Passing comment on the color coded Barclay Daily Study Bible Series: Nancy and I chuckled recalling that both of our parents had the full series on full display on one full shelf of a prominent bookcase. We were children born in the middle of 50s, it could have been pervasive in Christian homes at that time. And we have a full set on our bookshelf still in our new home. Praise God, we are spending more time turning pages now then we did 50 years ago. After nearly seven years in an apartment, it is nice to get all the Christian books out of storage and back on the book shelves. It is really nice just to reach across the room for a quick look from a bible verse.
No, I don’t have nearly enough faith, to be anything but an “all in” Christian! Paul recounting his witness to others in the Gospel says: “If we Christians aren’t right, we are the most pathetic creatures that have ever walked the earth!” That would be correct but I would reply : NO WORRIES ! That is as in -0-.
Soli Deo Gloria!