Is God using you to Bless Others? – Acts 11

After Stephen had been martyred for his faith by the religious Jews, the church began to experience persecution in Jerusalem.  The church spread out beyond Jerusalem moving North to Antioch.  As the believers in Christ dispersed, they became a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to the power of God that changes peoples lives.

When a person comes to Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit being baptized into the body of Christ.  Having received the Holy Spirit, the believer in Christ will then experience being filled with the Holy Spirit.  A person filled with the Holy Spirit is given the desire to worship, to love, to do good, and to bless. 

Barnabas was one of those early Christian leaders who were filled with the Holy Spirit becoming a father to many in the early church.

The gospel had traveled to North reaching Antioch.  In Antioch a great number of people placed their faith in Jesus.  The church decided to send Barnabas to Antioch to be their pastor so that he could instruct them in the faith.

Once Barnabas reached Antioch the first thing he did was to encourage them in the faith.  The text then says that he was a “good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”  The phrase was the same one used to describe Stephen who had been stoned by the religious Jews. 

Barnabas began to bless those around him by using his gifts to build up the body of Christ so that they were encouraged in the faith.  As the work proceeded, he realized that he needed some help and went to Tarsus to find Paul.  Paul agreed to assist in the work and went to Antioch to serve with Barnabas for a year. 

In Antioch the believers in Christ were first called Christians.  The early Christians made a powerful impression and were recognized as followers of Jesus.  The Christian community in Antioch was important to the early church as a result.  

The love in that early Christian community can clearly be seen.  Paul went on three missionary journeys and all of them included Antioch as one of the stops.  Paul wanted to encourage and be encouraged by the believers in Antioch whom he had gotten to know and grown to love.  

When Agabus prophesied about a coming famine, the believers in Antioch were quick to help their brothers in Christ found in Judea.  The love found in that community was overflowing beyond that community and reaching out to bless their brothers and sisters in Christ who were suffering.

Is your love overflowing to others?  Are you a blessing to others?  Are you consistently talking about the things that God is doing in your life?  A person who knows the love of God being filled with the Holy Spirit will be a blessing to those around them.

Seeing the Potential in those Around You? - Acts 10

Have you started seeing the potential in those around you?  As believers in Christ who know the love of God, we experience the life of God when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  The joy of heaven fills our life and allows us to really enjoy worshiping the Lord and  loving our families including those of the household of God. 

After the ascension of Jesus to heaven, the apostles began to share the gift of God with the Jews arguing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.  As they went out, they were filled with the Holy Spirit boldly proclaiming the gospel to their families and friends.

As people were turning to the gospel, the Jewish believers were then sharing the gospel with their families.  In some cases, the family members were Gentiles who had married into their families.  Upon hearing about the gospel of grace, these individuals were coming to faith and then sharing the good news with their Gentile friends.

Even though Jesus had commanded the disciples to “make disciples of all the nations,” the apostles had continued thinking that only Jews could be filled with the Holy Spirit since the gospel had been given to the Jews to share with world. 

This thinking was about to change in Acts 10 when Cornelius had a vision where Conelius was asked to send for Paul.  Cornelius being a Gentile had received a vision which opened the eyes of Peter to the meaning of his vision.  The fact that they both had received a vision opened Peter’s eyes to the potential of the Gentiles as witnesses to the grace of God.

Acts 10, “³⁴ Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. ³⁵ But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. ³⁶ The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— ³⁷ that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. ³⁹ And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. ⁴⁰ Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, ⁴¹ not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. ⁴² And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”  (NKJV)

After Peter had spoken to the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit fell upon both the Jews and the Gentiles.  Everyone in the room began speaking in their native tongue worshiping the Lord together as one family.  Having seen the power and grace of God being poured out in their life as evidenced by their worship, Peter says, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

In other words, as believers in Christ we need to see the potential in those around us.  The Kingdom of God can be known by all who receive His Son.  The joy of heaven and the life of God are there for all those who come to him in faith. God wants all men to be saved and come to know the life and joy of heaven that comes from knowing Jesus!

The Heavenly Vision will Change Your Life - Acts 9

When Paul, formerly Saul, came to Christ, he was traveling on the Damascus Road in hopes of finding more Christians to bring back to Jerusalem for trial.

As he was traveling along a light shone from heaven causing Paul to fall to the ground.  Paul then heard a voice which said, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?”

God had opened the eyes and ears of Paul so that he could believe that Jesus was the Son of God.  The men who were traveling with Paul could hear the voice; however, they could not see the heavenly vision. 

When a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, their eyes are opened in order to see the glorious light of the gospel.  The light of the gospel is what causes the seed of the gospel to grow in our lives resulting in fruit.

As a believer in Christ, can you see the heavenly vision?  Can you see the Kingdom of God and Jesus sitting at the right hand of the throne of God?  Can you see and feel the love of God and can you hear His voice?   There was no doubt in the mind of Paul because he knew the Lord having seen and heard him.  

After Paul received Christ, Ananias hears the voice of the Lord and instructs him to go and lay hands on Paul.  Ananias living in obedience to the voice of the Lord goes and lays hands on Paul saying, “…the Lord Jesus…has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Now that Paul’s eyes were opened to the glorious gospel seeing the heavenly vision, he is filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately begins preaching Christ in the synagogues.  Paul was a witness to the life of God that he came to know when he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul's love for God and for others overflowed into the world.  He was using his gifts to bless the world as a witness knowing the life of God that results from believing the gospel.  

Are You Filled with the Holy Spirit? - Acts 8

Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?  Luke makes a point of showing how those filled with the Holy Spirit are changing the world.

The apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit resulting in them experiencing the life of God and changing the world.  The theme carries into chapter 4 where Luke says, “And great grace was upon them all.”  Stephen is filled with the Holy Spirit with Luke stating he is, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit”.   Stephen preached the gospel until his death.  In Acts 8, the Spirit speaks to Philip who is filled with the Spirit telling him to go and share the gospel with the Ethiopian. 

However, there were those who were not filled with the Holy Spirit.  Ananias and Sapphira were believers who were not filled with the Holy Spirit.  As a result, they lied to the Holy Spirit about the amount they sold their land for.  In Acts 8 we see Simon the Sorcerer who came to faith in Christ.  Simon was not filled with the Holy Spirit; however, he wanted to buy the ability to fill people with the Holy Spirit.

^{Acts 8: 14} Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, ¹⁵ who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. ¹⁶ For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰ But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. ²² Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” (NKJV).

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?  While everyone is baptized into the body of Christ by means of the Spirit, the Bible tells us what it means to be filled with the Spirit in Galatians 5, “²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,²³ gentleness and self-control.”  

In other words, to be filled by the Holy Spirit is to fully experience the life of God in the Spirit.  The Spirit is then able to speak to you through the Word about your activity in life because he gives us the desire to do good, to love, to experience joy, peace, etc…  Sin no longer has any room in your life and you become a witness to the life of God.  Once you have known the life of God as a result of being made spiritually alive in Christ, the Spirit empowers you making you a powerful witness for the Lord of His gospel.

Can you hear the voice of the Lord? - Acts 7

Can you hear the voice of the Lord or are you too busy focusing on created things?

Stephen makes it plain that the people of Israel had rejected the Lord.  The Jewish people had made the temple and their history the focus of their worship.  The Lord was supposed to be the focus of their worship.  The Jewish leaders had turned the worship of the One true God into the worship of the temple itself. 

Our salvation does not rest in a church; rather, it resides in the Lord who is Lord of all!

The Lord was the one who had revealed himself to Joseph who had been rejected by his brothers.  The Lord had revealed himself to Moses and Moses was rejected by his brothers.  The Lord had revealed His Word to the prophets and the prophets were rejected by their brothers.  When the Lord Himself came, the people of Israel had rejected the Lord Himself.

The response of the people of Israel to the Word of the Lord had always been to worship foreign gods made of created things.

The person who brings heaven and earth together was the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord does not live in temples made with hands; rather, heaven is his throne and earth is his footstool. 

Because the people of Israel failed to worship the Lord, Stephen calls them out saying, “⁵¹ “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”  The Jewish leaders had rejected the Lord.

The ending of Acts 7 is powerful as heaven opens up and Stephen sees the Lord sitting at the right hand of God.  As the Lord had revealed himself to Joseph, Moses and the prophets, the Lord had revealed himself to Stephen. 

The response of the people of Israel was predictable as they began to pick up stones and stone him to death.

Our focus in worship as Christians is the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to listen for His voice and follow him.  In order to hear him, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to open up our ears and eyes so that we can hear and see the Lord as He has revealed Himself in the Word of God.

Are you a Servant-Leader? - Act 6

Are you the type of person who wants to inspire others by your example or the type of person who wants to control people?  The type of person you are reveals the type of Christian leader you will be.

The disciples were busy serving the church preaching the Word and serving the people.  A problem arose because the ministry was growing and the apostles were no longer able to keep up with prayer, preaching the Word and serving tables due to the overwhelming needs of the people. 

The apostles then asked the people to select among themselves some others to help them in their ministry to ensure that the needs of the people were being met.

Christ was their example who clearly was a servant leader who had called the disciples to help him in reaching the world with the gospel.  We can see this when he selected the 12 disciples and when he sent out the 70 disciples to preach about the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Acts 6:1-7 tells us two things that I think are important.  First, once a ministry becomes larger, a servant leader will then request that others be appointed so that all the needs are met in a ministry.  Second, the congregation selected among themselves men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom in order to make sure the needs were met of the people they were leading.

Good leadership inspired by the Holy Spirit resulted in the word of God spreading in Jerusalem even to the point that a number of Jewish priests became obedient to the faith.

The people chosen to serve tables were great men of faith who knew the Word.  I think many of us think that serving others is a lower position; however, in the early church this was seen as a sign of Christian maturity. 

Stephen was one of those who were selected to serve tables.  He was passionate about Christ and loved to preach the Word and serve others.  Serving tables was clearly not a job for a weak heart in the early church.  Stephen later died for his faith in Christ while preaching the Word. 

The congregation had selected men who were like the apostles who desired to serve and preach the Word resulting in the ministry multiplying.  Don't be a dictator; rather, be like Christ and be a servant-leader because love is a sign of maturity in the Christian faith.

Do you obey God? - Acts 5

When faced with a choice between obeying God or pleasing men, which one do you choose?  For a believer in Christ we are to obey God rather than men.

Luke illustrates this very vividly in the story of Ananias and Sapphira who came before Peter with an offering.  They claimed that they sold the land and gave all the money to the church; however, they had secretly held a portion back for themselves.  Ananias and Sapphira determined in their hearts to lie about the amount of money they sold their land for.  In other words, they were seeking to please men rather than God.  As a result, God judged them and they both died.

The apostles on the other hand were obeying God rather than men.  They had banded together and were a faithful witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and about the resurrection of all men.  Their following had grown so large that the religious leaders were concerned that the people were going to turn on them.  The religious leaders decided to grab the apostles and throw them into prison in order to stop them from obeying God as faithful witnesses to the resurrection.

When it was time to bring the apostles before the Sanhedrin for trial, they found that the apostles were no longer in jail; rather, they were in the streets preaching having been released by an angel.  As a result of their faithfulness, the apostles were saved from the hands of those who wanted to kill them.

The religious leaders then sent men to bring the apostles before them.  The apostles clearly were not obeying their commands; rather, they were obeying God.

When brought before the religious leaders, Peter bluntly told them, “We ought to obey God rather than men."  He then proceeded to tell the that they were witnesses to the resurrection and that God gives His Holy Spirit to them that believe which of course made them angry.

Gamaliel, a Pharisee, then stood up and argued that God was sovereign.  If these men were obeying God, then the counsel may be fighting against God.  He stated, "for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God."

The only question left is whether you are a person who seeks to please God or to please men.  Are you like Ananias and Sapphira who were seeking to please men or are you like the apostles who obeyed God no matter the consequences leaving the outcome to God?

The Source of Christian Boldness - Acts 4

When a Christian comes to faith in Jesus, they generally are bold about their faith having discovered the truth and been convinced of the truth of the Gospel by the Holy Spirit.

A person's boldness flows from the Holy Spirit resulting in the seed of the gospel being planted in the hearts and minds of those who listen.

In Acts 4 we see that Peter was brought before the Sanhedrin having done a notable miracle in Acts 3.  The Sanhedrin were impressed that these uneducated men were so bold and they recognized that they were Jesus followers.

They boldly proclaimed, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"

Once a believer realizes that Christ died for us in order that we might be saved, we realize that God is calling us to do the same.  I think it only makes sense that if we love those around us then we should be willing to die in order that our loved one and neighbors might be saved.  

Boldness as a result is a natural and necessary requirement of love because it is out of love that Christ died while sharing about the Kingdom.  As Christ followers using Christ as our example, we should be ready to die out of love as we share about the Kingdom of God.

In fact, it is only those who know the love of God that are ready to die because we know that to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The Restoration - Acts 3

The Spirit of God lives within His children giving us the power to live a life of love in the Spirit.  The power that created the universe is the same power that lives within us resulting in faith, strength, courage, hope, discipline and love.  Having been separated by sin by the sin of Adam, we look forward to the restoration of all things due to the work of Christ on the cross.

In Acts 3, Peter who knew the power of God in his life was able to demonstrate how God can restore a person and make them whole.  Peter acknowledges that this power was not of him; rather, it was God at work in and through him.

"Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³ who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (NKJV)

The restoration can be seen in Peter who became a blessing to those around him.  The love of God soars within our lives and overwhelms us so that we become a blessing to those around us.  The restoration that took place in the lame man gave us a picture of eternity when God will restore all things.

Christian's Relationships

When a person says that man has a soul, we are taking about the very essence of who a man is. Every person has a mind, heart, will, emotions and body and all these things work together as one thing in order to bless or curse our neighbors. 

Since man has fallen into sin, we have been trying to come up with ways to make our bodies live forever. We jog, exercise, take vitamins, eat healthy stuff; however, in the back of our minds, we all know that these things will only provide a few more years to our lives and that death eventually will consume us.

We are all painfully aware of our own fallen state because we all know that we are not eternal and that our lives will vanish away never to be remembered. 

The Christian believes just the opposite as we have a great hope. We know that everything we do on earth will be remembered forever in eternity because death does not have the final victory; rather, God does and He gives eternal life to all those who accept His Son. As a result, all of our relationships are eternal and will never end so we use our mind, heart, will, emotions and body to bless those around us knowing that everything time we bless someone, it will be remembered forever!