Daddy loves you! (Acts 20:28-21:1)

I think Friday (6/21/13) was the first time I heard the story of the 3-year-old boy (Grayson from North Carolina) who was born without the nerve responsible for transmitting sound from his ears to his brain.  Recently Grayson had a procedure intended to allow him hear for the first time.  I don’t remember the name of the procedure or how it works, but what I will never forget is the look on the boy’s face when he was able to hear for the very first time.  I’m sure the words had been spoken over – signed to – him countless times before, but for the first time Grayson heard “Daddy loves you.  Daddy loves you.”  The look on his face was priceless!  Sheer joy at the sound of his father’s voice.

I cried immediately thinking about how sweet the sound will be when we, as believers in Jesus Christ, hear audibly the voice of God our Father, saying, “Daddy loves you.”  … And then I cried again because I realized that there are people whom God loves who have never heard that God loves them.

In Tentmakers (and on this blog) we have been studying the missionary journeys of the apostle Paul.  Last week we read in Acts 20:24 that Paul’s goal had become to, “finish [his] course with joy and the ministry which [he had] obtained from … the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the Good News of God’s grace” (Amplified).  His ambition was to make sure that people who had never heard the Gospel would hear (Rom 15:20).  This week studying Acts 20:28-21:1, in which Luke records the remainder of Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders, we see that Paul uses a flock-shepherd analogy (familiar in Scripture) to explain the role of the Ephesian elders from this point on.  In verse 28 alone, Paul tells them who their flock is, what they are to do with them, and why they should take their position so seriously.  If you flip over to 1 Peter 5:1-3, you’ll also see how elders were to tend their flock.  All of this looks forward to the time “when the Chief Shepherd is revealed” (1 Peter 5:4).

Now What?  Well, I asked the class today to think about the flock over which God has appointed each one of them as a shepherd.  I ask you to consider the same question.  Along with that, think about the what, why, and how discussed in the paragraph above.  What are you to do with the flock?  Why is it so important?  How are you to lead?  And I’m quite sure that “when the Chief Shepherd is revealed” – and we are blessed by seeing His face – we will also hear the voice of God, saying “Daddy loves you!”

Finally, I realized that not every reading this is well-versed in Scripture, so if you’re one who has never heard that God loves you, don’t take my word for it.  Take His:

“God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.  This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10, NLT)

No matter who you are.  No matter what you’ve done.  Regardless of whether or not you love yourself … or have ever been loved by any person.  God loves you!

 

TIME Magazine link:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/20/watch-boy-hears-his-dads-voice-for-first-time/

 

Selah! (Acts 20:13-27)

Last night Mara surprised me by going through her bedtime routine without us even knowing about it.  She came into the living room dressed in her pj’s with a great big smile on her face.  When I asked her what was going on, she replied, “Mama, I know I always complain when we’re getting ready for bed, so today I decided to do everything by myself, so you wouldn’t have to hear me complain!”  All I could do was Selah!  (Selah is a Hebrew word used frequently in the Psalms, which means pause and calmly think of that.)

This morning her words were still rolling around in my head.  How – at 6 years old – could she recognize and acknowledge a specific situation in which she was prone to complain?  And not only that, but to intentionally take action to keep history from repeating itself.  Maybe her words stayed in my head because I had set myself up to complain just yesterday afternoon when I didn’t allow enough time to get us out of the house before going to gymnastics.  Or maybe it was because I haven’t had the urge to write for several weeks now (in case you’ve noticed).  I’ve just been waiting for God to give me something to say.  Turns out He gave Mara something worth saying.

Since I last posted, we have continued to follow Paul on his third missionary journey.  In today’s study, we catch up to Paul on the last leg of this journey.  Go ahead and read Acts 20:13-27.  I’ll warn you that the beginning of the passage includes several cities that may be unfamiliar.  Just push through, saying the names confidently … Don’t even think of using them as an excuse to get out of reading the rest.  (Yes, I’m talking to you.  Laughing.)

If you look earlier in Acts 20, you’ll see that Paul and his traveling partners (once again including Luke, the writer of Acts) begin our passage in Troas.  They are headed to Jerusalem, making several pit stops along the way.  One stop Paul was trying to steer clear of was Ephesus, but Paul wasn’t avoiding the Ephesians altogether.  Luke tells us (vs. 17) that Paul “sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church [to come to him there].” (Amplified).  So if he wanted to talk to the elders, why wouldn’t he just go to Ephesus?

We discussed a few of the possibilities in Tentmakers on Sunday.  Maybe there was still some unrest after the Artemis (Diana) riot (Acts 19:23-20:1).  Maybe Paul was afraid that the need would be so great that he wouldn’t be able to leave in time to make it to Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost (Acts. 20:16).  In verse 25, Paul tells the elders that this is goodbye.  Maybe he couldn’t bear the thought of saying that to the whole congregation.  Maybe … (you can fill in your own “maybe”).  The ‘Maybe ...’ I filled in this morning came from Mara’s statement about avoiding complaining.  I wonder if Paul sensed that he would be tempted to complain about (and work on) the problems he would see in the church from close-up instead of keeping the focus on his farewell address. 

Now What?  Well, next week we’ll be studying the rest of Paul’s message to the Ephesian elders.  Until then, I challenge you to do what I’ll be doing for the foreseeable future:  Recognize and acknowledge when and where you may be tempted to complain, and (like Mara … and maybe Paul) do something intentional to turn your complaining into a great big smile.  “… if only I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have obtained from … the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the good news (Gospel) of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).  Selah!

Hooked (Acts 18:24-28)

Now What? … If you check this blog regularly, ‘Now what?’ is a question you may have been asking over the last few weeks.  I assure you that my silence is not because I have been ignoring my commitment to you.  In fact, you are on my heart and mind every time I sit down to study, regardless of how prolific I may (or may not) seem.  So to answer ‘Now what?’ question, let’s go to Acts 18 and pick up with verse 24: 

            “Meanwhile, there was a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, who   came to Ephesus…” (Amplified)

As much as I’d like to sprint through the coming verses, I just can’t do it … at least not without first taking the bait here in verse 24.  What bait?  The word meanwhile (or a similar word depending on your translation) is a lure begging us grab hold, so that we can be drawn toward what is just out of our sight.  Look back at the preceding verses.  What was going on in the meanwhile? 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Paul had left Corinth with his new friends Priscilla and Aquila and headed for Syria.  On their way, they stopped at Ephesus (vs. 18-19).  Although Paul couldn’t stay in Ephesus at the time, he left Priscilla and Aquila there, in hopes that he himself could someday return (vs. 19-22).  Meanwhile … go ahead and read Acts 18:24-26.

While Paul leaving the others in Ephesus doesn’t seem like that big of a deal back in verses 19-22, we see in verses 24-26 that their continued presence in Ephesus was pivotal for the life and ministry of a new man on the scene, Apollos.  Apollos came to Ephesus powerfully teaching the Scriptures (what we would recognize as the Old Testament) along with the baptism of John.  That is, Apollos knew the prophecies concerning the Jewish Messiah – the Christ – and John the Baptist’s preaching of urgency to repent in preparation for His coming (Lk 3:1-18), but Apollos didn’t yet know Jesus by name (vs. 25).  Priscilla and Aquila had the privilege of sharing the Good News with Apollos.  I imagine their opening words to be similar to Paul’s recorded in Acts 19:4:  “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, continually telling the people that they should believe in the One Who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.”  The Christ Whom Apollos had been preparing for had come and He “died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures … was buried … and arose on the third day as the Scriptures foretold” (1 Cor 15:3-4).

All of a sudden, I’m thinking of Back to the Future.  You know when Marty goes back to 1955 and tells Doc that what he was dreaming of had come true – the flux capacitor, time travel, … Doc didn’t receive Marty’s message with skepticism, but rather with excitement!  Read Acts 18:27-28 to see how Apollos reacted to the Good News.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

How did you describe Apollos’s response?  I think Apollos did what God wants us all to do – not that we all must have a desire to travel abroad, but that our desire would be to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others!  Once again Priscilla and Aquila’s presence in Ephesus proves important to God’s work through Apollos in that they – having lived in Achaia, Corinth specifically – were able to send a letter with Apollos, introducing him as a friend to be trusted.

Now What?  Well, we started today by taking the bait back in Acts 18:24.  If you look just into Acts 19:1, you’ll quickly see another ‘lure’ – “While Apollos was in Corinth, …” (emphasis mine).  I encourage you to take the bait again and read into Acts 19.  Look for a continuation of themes and circumstances we have studied today.  I’ll catch up to you again in Acts 19:11.  Until then …

Lord God, I pray that we as believers will be hooked on Your Word, allowing the Holy Spirit to draw us increasingly closer to You.  Knowledge isn’t power.  The application of knowledge is power, so like the men and women of Scripture, I ask that You give us eyes to see opportunities to apply every lesson.  In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End (Acts 18:18-23)

This week we studied Acts 18:18-23.  Go ahead and read this passage so that we can get our bearings before starting today’s discussion…

… My pun in the above paragraph probably went unnoticed when you first read it, but maybe you’ll appreciate it now (or maybe not).  I mentioned getting “our bearings.”  Having a working knowledge of the geography of the region referenced in today’s passage can help us make a little more sense of the sequence of events Luke is describing. If you have the opportunity to look at a map (either in your Bible or online), follow this leg of Paul’s ministry – starting in Corinth (Acts 18:18) and ending in Galatia and Phrygia (vs. 23).

I wonder if you noticed the same things I did.  Like when reading the Scripture with the backdrop of the region’s geography, most translations do not order verses 18-21 sequentially (at least not consistently sequentially … the NLT being the exception I’ve found).  Verse 18 reads (at least to me) as if (1) Paul stayed in Corinth for a while (after Sosthenes’ beating [discussed in my previous post]) before (2) saying goodbye and sailing for Syria along with Priscilla and Aquila.  (3) Somewhere along the way, at a place called Cenchreae, Paul cut his hair.  On your map, did you notice that Cenchreae was actually a port city near Corinth?  It is more accurate to think about the mention of Cenchreae in the midst of item (2) rather than a separate item (3).

Verse 19a (i.e. the first part of verse 19) gives us an overview of Paul’s short visit to Ephesus:  They arrived in Ephesus, but Paul left alone.  Verses 19b-21 tell us what happened during Paul’s short stay.  But why so short?  Look back at verse 18.  Where was Paul’s intended destination?                           

Right, it was Syria.  Looking back at your map, was Ephesus in Syria?                    

Paul’s course was set, and it appears that – while he wanted to stay longer – Ephesus was a lay-over on his trip back to Syria.  So at the end of verse 21, Paul “set sail from Ephesus” and headed for Syria (vs. 18).

After landing in Caesarea, Paul went south to Jerusalem and then north to Antioch, where he stayed for a time and then left (vs. 22b-23a).  If you’ve been studying Paul’s missionary journeys alongside of us here on the Now What? blog (or at church in Tentmakers), I really hope the mention of Antioch at least rings a bell.  If not, look back at Acts 15:40, 14:27-28, and 13:1-3.  Although these verses don’t all mention Antioch explicitly, if you look at the context of each verse, you will see that they all take place in Antioch (of Syria).  We might say it was Paul’s home church.  It was from this city that we have seen him begin all three of his missionary journeys and end the first two.  Some of you may be thinking, ‘But I thought we were still on his second journey?’  Well, we were … until Acts 18:22b-23a when Paul came to Antioch quietly and departed equally so. 

The unceremonial tone of the end and the beginning Luke barely describes (again in vs. 22b-23a) remind me so much of an anticipated reunion – family, high school, college, etc.  You know when you go somewhere you used to fit in, but things just aren’t like they used to be?  Maybe you’ve changed.  Maybe they’ve changed.  Maybe that person who held the group together is no longer there.  It’s just not the same.  That is what I see with Paul here in Antioch.  I wonder if the difference for him lingering or leaving was Barnabas.  Barnabas who, along with Paul (then Saul), had been set apart by God for that first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-3).  Barnabas who – even earlier than that – had hunted Saul down in Tarsus to bring him to this new church Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). 

As for the “maybe you … or they … have changed” option, that may have played a role as well.  Antioch wasn’t the same baby church it was when Barnabas brought Paul there years ago (Acts 11:25-26).  Likewise Paul must have had a more definite grasp on his calling than he did in the early days of his own ministry – “to preach the Gospel, not where Christ’s name has already been known … But as it is written, They shall see who have never been told of Him, and they shall understand who have never heard” (Rom 15:20-21, Amp).   

Antioch had grown.  Paul had grown.  Barnabas was gone.  And so Paul “left and went from place to place in an orderly journey through the territory of Galatia and Phrygia, establishing the disciples and imparting new strength to them” (Acts 18:23).  Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.

Now What?  It’s time for a new beginning.

What Goes Around Comes Around (Acts 18:9-17)

Our lesson this week in Tentmakers came from … You guessed it! … Acts 18.  Before I get all fired up, I want you to go there and read verses 9-17.  While you do, please allow me to pray for our time together.

Father God, we come to You in Jesus’ name, asking Your blessing on our time together.  Lord, that our minds will be fixed on You and that nothing (phones and family alike) will divide our attention.  Give us understanding that we may learn... (Ps 119:73).  Amen.

Okay!  Now that you’ve read Acts 18:9-17, I want you to look back at the passage and make a list of the cast of characters found in this clip.  Try picturing it in your mind.  (Please realize that, even though we may use some movie/theater terms to help us connect to the passage, Acts is an historical book.  The events Luke depicts here really happened!)

Verse 9-10:  We see Paul asleep in bed, then …

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Verse 11:  Paul settled down in Corinth.  What does “settling down” look like?  What would he be doing?

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Verse 12-13:  Who’s the new guy?  What do the Jews do to feel him out (typical when under new authority)?

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Verse 14-16:  How does each participant in the scene (Paul, Gallio, the Jews) react to this testing?

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                           

Verse 17 … finally (exclamation of excitement not exhaustion)!  If you think we reached the climax of the scene with Gallio putting the Jews in their place, you now see otherwise.  Describe the activity in the scene, but also look at each person still in the courtroom.  Can you see the looks on their faces?  Mob of Greeks?  Gallio (I like KJV for Gallio)?  Sosthenes?  Paul?

Activity:                                                                                                                                           

Mob:                                                                                                                                                  

Gallio:                                                                                                                                                           

Paul:                                                                                                                                                  

I don’t know how you pictured Paul’s face, but what I see is a look of uncomfortable familiarity.  This wasn’t Paul’s first time with a front-row seat to an undeserved beating.  In his previous life as ‘Saul the Pharisee,’ he was usually the one doing the dragging (see Acts 8:3, 9:1-2).  I imagine this as a full-circle moment for Paul.

We might have initially wondered (at least I did) if Paul appreciated (at the least) or encouraged (at the most) Sosthenes’ beating … After all, Luke does say that “the Jews unitedly made an attack upon Paul and brought him before the judge’s seat” (Acts 18:12).  Unitedly must have included Sosthenes, the leader of their synagogue, right?  (This is not a trick question.)  I think instead that what happened in that courtroom (Acts 18:12-17) took Paul back to a place he regretted he had ever been.  To distance himself further from that place, Paul didn’t respond with an attitude of satisfaction; instead he reached out to Sosthenes with a compassion that could only come from one who had been there.

If you continued reading in Acts 18 – even only into verse 18 – you may wonder where I’m getting the idea that Paul reached out to Sosthenes, and you would be right to ask that question!  For those of you who haven’t read it, please do.  Sosthenes is never again mentioned in the book of Acts.  So where is he mentioned?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  A few years after leaving Corinth, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, and guess who Paul includes in his opening greeting.  That’s right … Sosthenes!  Don’t take my word for it; read 1 Corinthians 1:1 to see for yourself.

In reading and re-reading this week’s passage from Acts 18:9-17, the term “judgment seat” kept jumping out at me.  I think that’s because, when God gave instructions to Moses for the Tabernacle, there was no judgment seat; instead there was a mercy seat (Exodus 25:17-22).  That day in Gallio’s courtroom, God showed mercy to Sosthenes by specially positioning Paul to minister to him.  When we feel we’ve been wronged by someone and then the tables are turned and that person is the one under fire, don’t we sometimes respond from a judgment seat – instead of a mercy seat? 

Now what?  Today, when you see someone hurting, ask yourself if God has strategically positioned you to minister to their needs.  Using the backdrop of Paul and Sosthenes, I’ll give you two questions to consider with your situation in mind:  (1) Is it a person who has wronged you?  (2) Have you been where s/he is?  If either one of these is a ‘yes,’ then prayerfully consider reaching out.  You may be the only one who can.