Jesus finished chapter 10 by telling the disciples to live the life, that the smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. He gives the disciples that charge then goes on to preach and teach in the villages. John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, is locked in prison. He heard what the disciples were doing and sent a messenger to ask Jesus if he's the real deal. Jesus answers with the results, which fulfill what Jesus proclaimed when he read from the scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4:18-19): blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
I'm not sure I've ever seen that translation before: "The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side." Where are the proclaimers of that truth when religious folks suggest otherwise today? Is there a witness? The wretched learn that God is on their side! Hallelujah! What kind of would our God be if his nature was to heap up more stuff on the already beaten down? Why does the possibility of rescuing the beaten down produce such fear? "Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourself blessed!"
"For a long time now people have tried to force themselves into God's kingdom. But if you read the books of the Prophets and God's Law closely, you will see them culminate in John (the Baptist), teaming up with him in preparing the way for the Messiah of the kingdom."
"Are you listening to me? Really listening?"
"John came fasting and they called him crazy. I came feasting and they called me a lush, a friend of the riffraff. Opinion polls don't count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
Don't we still have trouble today if proverbial heads don't roll when folks are blatantly disobedient? That's why some say that Christians have been known to eat their young, or shoot their wounded.
EP: Jesus isn't passive. He's not active in the way we sometimes expect him to be. For he came not at a political savior, but as a personal savior-not bringing down the wrath of God on nations, but bringing the mercy of God to individuals.
"This Father-Son operation comes out of intimacies and knowledge.
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burnt out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
Acts
Timothy--Jewish mom and Greek father. They presented the simple guidelines the Jerusalem apostles and leaders had come up with. That turned out to be most helpful. Day after day the congregations became stronger in faith and larger in size.
Paul's Macedonian dream. Time to go preach to the Euopeans. EP: "God's world is always larger than our world. And God's vision to Paul shows us how large. The vision shows a person calling fo help. The most common error of the church and its leaders as they grow is to quit helping and begin exploiting. Without the vision to "Come over," the world becomes small and selfish. With this vision the world becomes large and generous. Without this vision, the church reduces itself to repetitious programs and rituals. Without this vision, the church looks at people as customers who help pay the bills and put on the programs. So we need to look long and hard at the Macedonian vision: 'Come over to Macedonia and help us!' This vision enlarges our capacity to enter the dimensions of God's world."
Prayer meeting with the women who listened, trusted, and believed. Lydia hosts Paul and Timothy and her whole household is baptized.
Slave girl who recognizes Paul and Timothy and their work for the Most High God. Paul calls out the possessing spirit, which means her money-making potential is shot. They took after Paul and Silas, had them arrested, publicly beat, and jailed with leg irons and all. Praying and singing, an earthquake occurred. Doors flew open and everyone got out. No one left. Jailer was ready to kill himself (shame). Sees they're all still there and asks Paul and Silas, "What do I have to do to be saved, to really live?" "Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus." Your entire trust? Entire. Trust. Entire? How hard is that?! Entire?!
Paul, though offered freedom, demands justice for their wrongful beating and imprisonment. Being set free isn't enough. He demands justice. They were Roman citizens and should not have been treated that way. That citizenship carried with it certain rights.
The hard-liners go after them, and they go after those who have been hosting Paul and Silas. And they do everything they possibly can to try to discredit them. "These people are out to destroy the world, and now they're here on our doorstep, attacking everything we hold dear. And Jason is hiding them, these traitors and turncoats who say that Jesus is king and Caesar is nothing." Those are fighting words...that Jesus is king, that is. And that Caesar is nothing. In that day and often in ours, Caesar is everything and Jesus is nothing...at least by the values we hold up and live.
Berean Jews are receptive, but the Thessalonians find them there. Paul to Athens, and sent for Timothy and Silas. "The city was a junkyard of idols." He presented a "new slant" on the gods with his story of Jesus and the resurrection. "Explain it at the Aeropagus so we can understand." "To the God nobody knows." I'll tell you who that is.
Paul's obvious truth: People are empty without God, and they try to eliminate the emptiness with philosophy or religion. Paul preaches Christ
Not remote; God's near. We're God created. "God overlooks as long as you don't know better, but that time is past. The unknown is now known and God's calling for a radical life change." I recently read somewhere that what if the account we are to give before God has to do with the beauty and presence of God we failed to notice, with the love we failed to share, with how we failed noticing how prevalent God's presence is on earth...it was something like that. And I appreciated it.
From Athens to Corinth. Frustrated. But changes houses and gets some results. Spirit speaks:
"Don't let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I'm with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you."
Governor of the province suggests this is one more Jewish squabble. Deal with it yourselves.
"Putting fresh heart into the disciples." Apollos needed a bit of theological correction, but then was a great help to those who had become believers.
The endurance and perseverance in the book of Acts never ceases to amaze me. It makes me sad at what small inconveniences can derail me, even if briefly.
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