SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/17/2017 9:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Persecution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 5:17-28
Message of the verses: “17
But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of
the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. 18 They laid hands on the
apostles and put them in a public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the
Lord opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said, 20 “Go, stand
and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life." 21
Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to
teach. Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the
Council together, even all the Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to
the prison house for them to be brought. 22 But the officers who came did not
find them in the prison; and they returned and reported back, 23 saying,
"We found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing
at the doors; but when we had opened up, we found no one inside." 24 Now
when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words,
they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this. 25 But
someone came and reported to them, "The men whom you put in prison are
standing in the temple and teaching the people!" 26 Then the captain went along with the
officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for they were
afraid of the people, that they might be stoned). 27 When they had brought
them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, 28
saying, "We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name,
and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this
man’s blood upon us."”
John MacArthur writes
at the beginning of his commentary on this section “A pure powerful church will inevitably provoke a
hostile reaction from the satanic world system.” I have been thinking about that thought for
some time now and the way that I have been thinking about it is trying to make
things simpler in this complicated world we live in. First thing that I realize is that God is in
control, that God has a plan for the world that He created, and that God has a
plan for every believer who has been saved by the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Some people may think that God
is not in control of everything that goes on in this world, but my thoughts are
that if God is God then He is in control.
Next we know that
Satan hates believers and will do anything that he is allowed to do to them to
cause them to stop walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, and persecution
is one of the ways that he does this, but as mentioned, only if God allows
it. In the case of this section we read
that the Jews were actually jealous over what the Apostles were accomplishing
and so they wanted to stop them from preaching in the name of Jesus. This early church was making waves in the
world system and it was not going un-noticed by this world system, notably the
unbelieving Jews.
Paul wrote to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted.” Peter as he reflects on the
persecution that he went through wrote “For what credit is there if, when you
sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do
what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with
God (1 Peter 2:20). Next we look at 1
Peter 3:17 “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for
doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.” And next 1 Peter 4:14 “If you are reviled for
the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God
rests on you.”
We read the following
from the lips of our Lord in Matthew 5:10-12 “10 “Blessed are those who have
been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be
glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.” John
15:17-20 has some similar things that are also said by our Lord “17 “This I
command you, that you love one another.
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it
hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of
this the world hates you. 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ’A slave is
not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Let us also look at what Paul wrote in Romans
8:17 “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we
suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
The early church in
Jerusalem was striving to do the things that the Lord desired for them to do
and as mentioned the enemies of our Lord did not like what was going on for
after all there had been at the last count in Acts over 5,000 people who have
come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and then the next count we give did not
even have a number, but said that there were many people being saved each day
and because of this we read in verse 17 or our text for today: “But the high priest rose up, along with all
his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with
jealousy.” I want to talk for a moment
about this word jealousy, “an envious and contentious rivalry, jealousy,” is
the last description of this word in my Greek/English dictionary from my Online
Bible program. In studying the attributes
of God I have found that “Jealousy” is one of God’s attributes, but when we
think about God being jealous we have to remember that God is first of all holy
and also perfect and so if one of God’s attributes is jealousy that jealousy is
perfect. God does not want anyone to
worship anything but Him and He has that right because of who He is.
We are not really sure
who the high priest was at this time as it could have been Annas as seen in 4:6
or Caiaphas as he was in office until A. D. 36.
We remember both of these men from the trials of our Lord. Whoever it was he was a member of the
Sadducees as all of the high priest of that time period were, and the Sadducees
did not believe in any angels, or any after life, or certainly no resurrection
from the dead. Not sure why they were
even doing what they were doing. However
they were committed to maintain the status quo and to put it in terms of today
the Apostles were upsetting the apple cart and these people did not like
it. They were afraid of a new Jewish
sect beginning in Jerusalem, which would then take power away from them and
they were doing everything in their power to stop it so they put the Apostles
in jail, in the public jail where the common prisoners were held.
Let’s look at one more
thought and that is that Satan’s opposition backfired and this provided for God
to display His power: “an angel of the
Lord opened the gates of the prison.”
This is not the only time when we will see this happen in the book of
Acts. Now this is indeed ironic since
the Sadducees denied that angels even existed.
After they were released the angel told them to “go your way, stand and
speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life” which refers
to the gospel. “Holding fast the word of
life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did
not run in vain nor toil in vain (Philippians 2:16).” “1 What was from the beginning, what we have
heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with
our hands, concerning the Word
of Life- 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and
proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested
to us- 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too
may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and
with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made
complete (1 John 1:1-4).” MacArthur adds
“The good news we proclaim is that Jesus Christ came into the world to give
abundant and eternal life to the spiritually dead (cf. John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6; 1
John 5:20).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Thinking about the mission of the church
which is spreading the gospel as these Apostles were doing in the early church
along with those who had been already born-again that has to be my mission too.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will be with the situation that my wife and my
daughter are involved in today, that He will work it out for their good and for
His glory.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“With a true heart, in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).”
Today’s Bible question: “When
Andrew met Jesus, what did he tell his brother Simon?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/17/2017 10:49 AM
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