ACTS 1

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For the next 28 days (7 days a week) I want to move back through the book of Acts. I suggest that you read the full chapter from whatever version each day and I will comment on a paragraph that seems to stand out to me out of that chapter. PASS IT ON TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
Don't be distracted away from this dynamic book of Acts. In a very real sense it's the 5th Gospel, specifically a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. I've always heard of Acts being a transitional book, but I see it differently in this season of my life. You've probably heard Acts called the "Acts of the Apostles", but I find it helpful to refer to Acts as the "Acts of Jesus." You see, although Jesus ascended into heaven, He is still quite active in our lives individually and as we gather in fellowship with one another. We grossly miss the point of the experience of walking with Jesus, if we don't see it this way.

Today in ACTS 1 check out verses 6-8: 6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

First NOTE their question. It's a little like "Jesus, are you going to unfold life and the world the way we've been taught and believed?" I've spent entirely too much time trying to figure out how God is going to unfold the world and bring it to some glorious conclusion. I've used the "signs of the times" to stir up people's interests and have been quite successful doing it. However, Jesus seems to relieve us of that knowledge or responsibility to know these things and points us to something far more important and strategic.

And He uses a big "BUT" to refocus our attention toward the most important things-the power of the Holy Spirit is to come upon Jesus' disciples and the disciples are to be Jesus' witnesses. FIRST, the power of the Spirit is to come upon Jesus' disciples. The way Jesus will remain active and powerful among His disciples is for the Spirit to do His work in us and among us. And, because the Spirit takes up permanent residence in those who believe, Jesus will have the opportunity to touch so many more lives than He could have. They were looking for political or organizational power. What Jesus wanted them to possess was a new kind of power-the transformational power of His Spirit for the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world. Jesus said that we would do greater works than He did and this is how it's done-with Spirit power!

SECOND, the disciples are to be witnesses of Jesus. We are not to be witnesses of a denomination or a cultural bent of Christianity. We are not told here to be witnesses of Bible doctrine or creeds or of the many teaching gurus. Literally Jesus says He wants His disciples to be "witnesses of Me" or My witnesses. The purpose for the power is to bear witness of Jesus, not Jesus plus anything, but Jesus plus nothing.

A question arises here. Why is it that we disciples are to bear witness of Jesus? It's because Jesus is all that is needed and nothing more. Jesus is the Good News in a bad news world. Jesus is the Gospel! The meaning of Jesus' name says it all. "God Saves!" Is there anything you can add to your witness to improve upon Him? No, there is nothing more to be said. It's all about Jesus!

Now NOTE the strategy for bearing witness of Jesus. We are to bear witness of Jesus to the remotest part of the earth. Also, NOTE that this witnessing has an order to it. You begin right where you live-IN JERUSALEM. Then be sure to witness of Jesus in your surrounding area. Now watch this--and in Samaria.

Samaria is the place where you might not be invited, because they are not "your kind". in fact, the Jews believed the Samaritans were half-breeds and they didn't get along at all. Yet Jesus made it clear that this was a strategic part of the plan for bearing witness, even to the Samaritans. Then, Jesus' disciples are to bear witness of Him to the remotest part of the world. This begs the question, "Who or what is the object of your witness?" Is it Jesus or is it Jesus plus something else?

ILLUSTRATION OF SELF-GIVING LOVE

 
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In reflecting further on the death of Jesus on the cross I feel compelled to share one more thought with you.
NOTE when the love of God is mentioned in the New Testament it is usually found in the context of Jesus' death on the cross. In John 3:16 Jesus says, "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son." Then in Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And then again in I John 4:10: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sins." John goes further and says that GOD IS LOVE.

Emil Brunner called this "The most daring statement that has ever been made in human language." But that statement alone tells us nothing. It is the cross that unpacks its meaning. As Eugenia Price says in Share My Pleasant Stones, "God's mercy was not increased when Jesus came to earth, it was illustrated! Illustrated in a way we can understand."

The love that Jesus illustrated was self-giving for the benefit of others. We tend to think of love in emotional terms, but the New Testament concept of love is more focused on active self-giving. And the greater the cost of that self-giving, the greater the love, therefore Jesus commands those who follow Him to "love your enemies" as well as friends. The very night before Jesus was crucified, He said to His disciples: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."

On the day Jesus died all of the guilt of the world was paid for by the sacrifice of the lamb of God. And, on that day all of the love of God rushed in to touch and transform all those who will see and hear the self-giving love of Jesus. You are a delight to God. He desires to have fellowship with you. He continues to court you with His self-giving love to woo you into a relationship with Him, no matter what you've done or haven't done. Now that's AMAZING GRACE.

ONE MORE THING: As followers of Jesus you are to practice this self- giving love with all those He brings to you. This self-giving love is best illustrated by loving and touching those who are in need and who are identified as your enemies.

So, it's SELF-GIVING LOVE or SELF-CENTERED LOVE? The good news of the Kingdom of God is that the Creator-God is love. And, God wants you and me to continually get back on track with the ultimate purpose of life. Do you know what that is? It's LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. It's all about self-giving love.

Every time you exert any energy toward "It's all about me!" or "What's in it for me?", you are spending yourself toward self-centered love which goes nowhere healthy. I find the greatest deception among followers of Jesus is that they can say, "I love God with all my heart as long as I can do life my way and I love my neighbor as myself as long as I can choose my neighbor." So, which is it for you? Self-giving love that spreads the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom to all the world around you or self-centered love that can only spread as far as your mirror and your decreasing band of friends? THINK IT OVER.

CRUCIFIXION AND DEATH OF JESUS

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Listen to Luke's account of the crucifixion and the death of Jesus. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"' For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"  
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals-one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One."
 
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
 
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."
 
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
 
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

So, we've heard the story of Jesus' crucifixion and His resulting death so many times. But I think these events require a simple explanation in order to understand why Jesus had to die in the first place.

You see, it's like this. Every one of us has something innate, built-in to our psyche. We just know deep down, inside that we must pay for whatever we do wrong or don't do right. There must be a payment. So, I feel guilty whenever I do anything wrong. That sense of guilt can only be satisfied when I pay for it, like when I do some compensation or penance that makes up for this wrong.

This payment concept is inherent in the sacrificial system that God established with Moses. A most vivid illustration of this is the Passover. Each family was required to kill a lamb, putting the blood of the lamb over the door of their home. When the death angel saw the blood of the lamb, it passed over that home. The lamb was sacrificed as a payment. The lamb died, so that the families might live. The lamb paid the price of death so that the family didn't have to die.

This same concept is what the entire sacrificial system is all about. A lamb or some other kind of animal was sacrificed to pay for certain sins. This occurred frequently for the Jewish family-daily, weekly monthly and annually. In the minds of the Jewish people the sacrifice of an animal substituted as a payment for the one who offered the sacrifice. The greatest payment ever received through the sacrificial system was a year's payment for their sins. Once the sacrifice has been made successfully by the high priest, then the people were absolved of their sins for one more year. This annual sacrifice is called Yom Kippur.

Then the Lord through His prophets made it clear that He was going to send His lamb some day to be the ultimate payment for any and all things that anyone has done wrong. This lamb was God's Messiah who was to die for the sins of the whole world. This is why John the Baptist, when recognizing Jesus, said, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." He knew Jesus was God's lamb.

You see, Jesus died as your lamb-the lamb of God, so that you don't have to pay for anything any longer. You don't have to feel guilty, because your account is all paid up.

There is only one catch to it all. You must personally identify with the lamb by placing your hands on the lamb sacrifice. This was the way to put personal trust in the payment. Well, today you must place your personal trust in God's lamb sacrifice for your sins-for all you ever did wrong or for whatever you will do wrong. Jesus has truly paid it all!

And, just as the Passover feast is a celebration of freedom from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, you can be eternally free. There are two verses in Acts that say it all: "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38-39).

Do you get it? Through Jesus' death you have FORGIVENESS of sins (all you do wrong), so that you don't have to pay any longer. In fact, you can't make any payment that satisfies. And, through Jesus' death you have FREEDOM from it all, IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD. Forgiveness and freedom form the bottom line of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. So, Jesus' death is not some religious or theological belief; it's the spiritual and psychological dynamic that every human being needs to find true satisfaction. Do you know what that means for you personally?

PETER DENIES JESUS

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Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." 
But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said.
 
A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." "Man, I am not!" Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean."
Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Jesus has just been arrested by temple troops in the Garden of Gethsemane and his disciples have fled for their lives. Peter has just had a traumatic experience attempting to chop a man's head off, missed and sliced off his ear, only to have Jesus heal the ear completely. It is a real night of terror for Jesus and His disciples in Jerusalem.

The temple troops took Jesus over to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. The high priest was usually selected from among the Sadducees, however the selection process may have been actually performed by Herod at this time. So, he was Herod's appointment.

Peter went along with the soldiers and tried to blend in with the little crowd of curious people. This in itself is quite courageous. He had followed Jesus for over 3 years and he was sticking with him, even at a distance. He's got to be scared personally for what might happen to him, too.

Fear overcame him as he was discovered by the servant girl and he quickly denied being one of Jesus' band of men. Later he was recognized by another person and Peter again blurts out that he is not one of Jesus' people. Finally, about an hour or so later as it was turning closer to morning Peter was recognized as a Galilean which he quickly turned into the third denial. And, just as he denies Jesus for the third time, the rooster crows and Jesus is able to see Peter, looking straight at him.

Talk about "I told you so!"; this had to be most debilitating to Peter. This is the Peter who claimed he was willing to go to prison or death for Jesus. This is why Peter quietly leaves the compound weeping bitterly. He is overwhelmed with guilt and shame.

Have you ever caught yourself in this kind of situation? Have you ever denied that you are a follower of Jesus either by your words or your actions? The lessons here are many and here are a few:

FIRST-Don't ever think you are above being a coward when it comes to identifying yourself with Jesus. This is why we must humbly follow after Him and humbly deal with one another.

SECOND-Prayer does matter in preparing our hearts for difficult times. Peter had just left a night of a little praying and a lot of nodding off.

THIRD-Fear and faith can't coexist easily. It's too easy to give into our fears. I like the saying, "When fear knocks, I must send faith over to answer the door."

FOURTH-Jesus is always looking. This use to scare me to death, when I was sure that Jesus was mad at me. Now, I understand that His look, though sometimes disappointed in me, is still filled with unconditional love, concern and forgiveness for me. More than anything else Jesus wants me to "get it" and "get through it."

ABOVE ALL I think this scene in Peter's life is indicative of our own lives as we move in and out of highly stressful and fearful moments. The most devastating thing of all is the look on Jesus' face when I screw up. When my parents gave me that disappointed look, that was worse than any spanking or grounding ever. I never wanted to disappoint them. And when I did, that's what hurt me the most. It's the same way with our relationship with Jesus. We don't want to disappoint Him, but we do. But OH THAT LOOK ON HIS FACE.

I am comforted by a passage in II Timothy that says, "And when we are faithless and deny Him, He remains faithful." Now that's why Jesus is worthy of our faith and trust and worship. HE REMAINS FAITHFUL!

JESUS BETRAYED AND ARRESTED

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Right away after the field trip on prayer, Jesus is encountered in the garden, betrayed by Judas and arrested.
 
While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him. Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour-when darkness reigns."

Well, Judas leads the way, signaling the officials of Jesus' identity and sealing it with a kiss. NOTE who didn't make the prayer meeting with Jesus and the other disciples there on the Mount of Olives.

When the disciples saw the impending conflict, they asked Jesus if this was the time to use their swords. And, while they were asking this of Jesus, one of them pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Can you guess who the impetuous disciple was? If you guessed Peter, you are right. John is the only gospel that identifies him. This is characteristic of Peter's personality of shooting first and asking questions later.

NOTE Jesus stops the violence and supernaturally puts the ear back on the victim's head. He healed him right there in front of all to see. I love it that right in the midst of being arrested Jesus pulls off an incredible, almost matter of fact, miracle.

ONE MORE THING: Jesus said to these official leaders, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?" You see, in the same way that the disciples saw Jesus as a political revolutionary these officials viewed Jesus as a powerful, political threat as well.

They were all missing the point. In fact, I believe most miss the point today. Jesus is not a powerful, political revolutionary out to overthrow any community, society or government. He is a revolutionary alright, but that revolution is transformational in nature-turning a person's heart inside out and turning his world upside down. This revolution has nothing to do with conservative versus liberal or democrat versus republican or Christian versus non-Christian. It has everything to do with supernaturally changing the hearts of men and women-anywhere the message of Jesus and the Kingdom are exposed.

This revolution is experiencing incredible growth world-wide. Nothing can stop it. Once that seed of the good news of the Kingdom has been sown, you never know where it will take root and grow into a fully fruitful plant. The revolution doesn't need flashing billboards. It doesn't need a Madison Avenue kind of marketing strategy. In fact, the revolution doesn't need any massive promotional strategy at all. The revolution that Jesus is talking about spreads one by one and two by two. The revolution doesn't require any money or fund-raising programs; it's a free, word of mouth campaign that cannot be stopped. The revolution of Jesus and His Kingdom cannot be easily defined or put into a nice little box for convenience. It's gloriously out of control in every culture on planet earth. The most exciting thing I can share with you today is: THE REVOLUTION IS STILL ON! Just watch what Jesus is doing around you and join the movement. You'll never regret it!