"Intro to "The Discussion" (Acts 15:6-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2018 9:30 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus: Intro to “The Discussion”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:6-18

            Message of the verses:  The following SD’s that we will be doing will consist of today’s introduction to the 2^nd main point from out outline from John MacArthur’s commentary and then we will be looking at six sub-divisions under this 2^nd main point.  We may do more than one of these in a day.

             “6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me. 14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ’AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, 17 SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’ 18. SAYS THELORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.”

            I have to say first of all that this is one of the most important sections of Scripture that is in the Word of God, especially the New Testament, and as noted before Peter and all those who headed up the Jerusalem church including James were certainly filled with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom as they made these statements and later on sent the letter to the church at Antioch.

            After all heard the message from Paul and Barnabas all the leaders decided to have a private meeting.  To be honest I don’t know if Luke was there since he was a great friend of Paul or if Paul later told him what happened in the meeting, at any rate we have in this section some of the things that went on in this meeting with more to follow.

            Another thing worth mentioning is that it would be the leaders and not the congregation who would decide what would happen in regard with this topic.  I am sure that later on the congregation heard about what happened, but for now it was up to the leaders.  Perhaps MacArthur has some insight that I did not have as he writes “Luke does not satisfy our curiosity by giving us an account of that meeting.  We can only imagine what it must have been like, with learned and godly men passionately pleading their cases.  Luke resumes his account with the entire congregation gathered to hear their leaders’ decision.  That decision was announced in a series of speeches by Peter, Paul and Barnabas, and James.  Each expounded the truth that salvation is wholly by God’s sovereign grace through faith, apart from any ritual or law-keeping.  Taken together, these speeches constitute one of the strongest defenses of that truth in Scripture.  It has well been said that Acts 15 is the Magna Carta of the Christian church.”

            Now we will get our outline for the six sub-section from the 2^nd main section:  “The speeches of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, and James present six proofs that salvation is solely by grace.  Salvation by grace is proven by past revelation, the gift of the Spirit, cleansing from sin, the inability of the law to save, the fact of miracles, and the prophetic promise.”

            As mentioned we will begin looking at these in our next SD.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jordan” (Matthew 3:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which two of the 12 spies said the Israelites could capture the land of Canaan?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/25/2018 9:51 PM

 

 

           

PT-3 "The Dissension" (Acts 15:1-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2018 7:03 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-3 “The Dissension”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."”

            We are going to look at the last verse in this section today and then give a couple of quotes that hopefully will help us understand this verse better.

            We have mentioned the Judaizers in an earlier SD from this section of verses and they were the ones that Paul and Barnabas were debating at the beginning of this section, but now when we get to verse five we see another group, the Pharisees who are basically saying the same thing and it all has to do with legalism.  Legalism is limited grace, and this is not what the Bible teaches:  “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom. 11:6).  John MacArthur quotes a man named Lenski:

“To add anything to Christ as being necessary to salvation, say circumcision or any human work of any kind, is to deny that Christ is the complete Savior, is to put something human on par with Him, yea to make it the crowning point.  That is fatal.  A bridge to heaven that is built of 99/100 of Christ and even only 1/100 of anything human breaks down at the joint and ceases to be a bridge.  Even if Christ be thought of as carrying us 999 miles on the way, and something merely human be required for the last mile, this would leave us hanging in the air with heaven being still far away. (R. C. H. Lenske).”

            Now as we look at the Pharisees of verse five we see that they were different than the ones who had a great hand in the crucifixion of Christ as it says “who had believed” and so as mentioned in our last SD they were holding onto something from their past life that surely needed to be changed.  Now these Pharisees were not arguing that circumcision was needed for salvation, but that believers were still obligated to keep the Law of Moses, and so they missed the point that Jesus kept all the Law and then died so that believers did not have to keep the law as a means of salvation.  John MacArthur writes “They were much like the weaker brothers of Romans 14:1-10, who held to dietary laws, rituals, and Sabbath codes for conscience’s sake.  They were convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah who died for their sins and rose from the dead.  That, however, did not immediately cause them to forsake keeping the Mosaic Law as a way of life.”

            If we compare the Pharisees with the Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the literal interpretation of Scripture, a literal resurrection, life after death, and the existence of angels, however the Sadducees did not. Thus

They shared the basic convictions of the Christians (Pharisees).  Because of this they are sometimes in Acts found defending the Christians against the Sadducees, who had much less in common with Christian views (cf. 5:17; 23:8f).  A major barrier between Christians and Pharisees was the extensive use of oral tradition by the Pharisees, which Jesus and Paul both rejected as human tradition.  It is not surprising that some Pharisees came to embrace Christ as the Messiah in whom they had hoped.  For all their emphasis on law, it is also not surprising that they would be reticent to receive anyone into the fellowship in a manner not in accordance with tradition.  That tradition was well-established for proselytes—circumcision and the whole yoke of the law.  (John B. Polhill).”

            John MacArthur concludes:  “New Covenant believers are freed from the unbearable burden (Acts. 10:13-15; 15:10) of keeping all the Old Covenant ritual.  Yet they are not ‘without the law of God but under the law of Christ’ (1 Cor. 9:21).  There is no license to sin in Christian liberty.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peter” (Acts 10:34).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did John baptize Jesus?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/24/2018 7:33 AM   

PT-2 "The Dissension" (Acts 15:1-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/23/2018 10:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  PT-2 “The Dissension”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."”

            We want to pick up our lesson today in verse three where we see that this delegation of trustworthy men, Paul and Barnabas and some others, went up to Jerusalem and on the way they were passing through Phoenicia and Samaria, and then the verse talks about what they were describing, that is the conversion of the Gentiles.  Perhaps they were giving a kind of report as to what happened in their first missionary journey.  But I think that the conversation was with people in the regions that they were going through.  Paul seems never to miss an opportunity to preach the gospel and because traveling was rather slow in those days they had opportunity to speak to people along the way.  Many people in those days traveled in groups in order to be safer, so perhaps that was what these men did and then had time to talk to other about Christ.  John MacArthur writes of these people “Those regions were populated largely by Hellenistic Jews and Samaritans, who were more open to the salvation of Gentiles than the Palestinian Jews were.  The news of the conversion of the Gentiles brought great joy to all these brethren.  As the spiritual children of Stephen, Philip, Peter, and John, they did not share the views of the legalists troubling the Antioch church.  Paul and Barnabas were building support as they went.  Not only the Antioch church but also the brethren from Phoenicia and Samaria supported the apostolic doctrine of salvation by faith along for both Jews and Gentiles.”

            In verse four we see that the journey was over for these men as they reached their destination at Jerusalem and they were received by the apostles and also the elders of the Jerusalem church.  Once there they reported all that the Lord had done with them, as Paul and Barnabas gave glory to the Lord for the success of their first missionary journey similar to what we read in Acts 14:27 “When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.” 

            I want to mention a few different things from this section and the first is that Paul remembers this time when he wrote to the church at Galatia as he was defending his apostleship in that letter.  Next I have to admit that I would have loved to be part of that meeting as all of the great apostles meet together discussing what the Lord had done for them thus far in their lives. 

            The problem with this meeting is that there were certain people who did not agree with what Paul and Barnabas were doing as they were making the free salvation that Christ offers into a Jewish “thing.”  They wanted to add to what people had to do, and if that were done then salvation would then not be free.  We read that “certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed protested.  It is necessary to circumcise them, and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”  We will deal with this issue in our next SD, but first I want to say that it is hard for people after they are saved to give up some of the things that they had before they were saved, that is why Paul wrote to the Philippians “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” in other words once you are saved you need to grow in grace as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:18.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Barabbas” (Luke 23:18).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons’?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/23/2018 10:46 AM

PT-1 "The Dissension" (Acts 15:1-5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/22/2018 9:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 The Dissension

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.’”

            In our last SD on the introduction to Acts 15:1-35 I did not do what I have usually done and that is quote the last paragraph of John MacArthur’s commentary in order to show us what points that we are going to go over.  “Given those concerns, conflict was inevitable.  As long as the Gentile converts were few and were already Jewish proselytes (like the Ethiopian eunuch), the issue could be avoided.  But by the time of the Jerusalem Council, matters had come to a head.  The issue was not whether God wanted to save Gentiles, but how they were to be saved.  Could they enter the kingdom of God directly, without coming through the vestibule of Judaism?  That was the question the Jerusalem Council convened to decide.  From the inspired record emerge four features:  the dissension, the discussion, the decision, and the development.”  We will begin looking at the dissension in today’s SD.

            In both Peter and Paul’s writings they warned the church of false teachers coming into the church.  These false teachers come from Satan to destroy the effectiveness of the church, and that is what we are seeing in Acts 15. 

            Paul writes how a person is saved in his letter to the Ephesians “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  This is the simple message of how a person was saved and Paul writes that works has nothing to do with salvation.  He goes on in verse then to talk about working after one is saved, but works has nothing to do with salvation as Jesus did all the work necessary and all we have to do is to accept it, and that is not a work.  If someone gives you a gift it is not a work to accept it.  John MacArthur writes “The most destructive of the ‘destructive heresies,’ since it damns men, is the teaching that salvation is by human works, which Peter warned against.  That doctrine is the credo of all false religion and the longest-running heresy in the history of the church.”  We see where this hearsay came from in verse one:  “Some men came down from Judea” and what they were teaching was “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”  This is the hearsay they were teaching, adding something to the free gift of salvation.  As we looked at verse 24 we read “"Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,” and this shows that they were not sent from the Jerusalem church.  I have to believe that they were messengers from Satan.  I am sure that they believed what they were teaching, but what they were teaching came out of the pit of hell and was destructive. 

            Whenever one studies the letter to the Galatians they will end up going to this 15^th chapter of Acts as Paul has much to say about this subject in that letter.  These men who came from Jerusalem probably did not want to eat with the believers in Antioch.  Paul writes about this in Galatians 2:11 and following.  If they did not eat with them then how could they participate in the Lord’s Supper?  Paul even writes in Galatians that Peter actually fell in line with the heretics while in Galatia.  These men have a name and that name was “Judaizers” and what they believed is seen in verse one:  “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

            Paul and Barnabas knew better and they rallied to the defense of their flock as they “had great dissension and debate with” these Judaizers.  As you read some of Paul’s letters you can understand how great of love he had for those in the flocks that he had started, and even those he did not start as they were all children in the Lord.

            We will close with what the church at Antioch did and that was to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem in order to talk to the leaders of the Jerusalem church.  By the way Peter was not the leader of this church it was James the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We read the following “the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.”  John MacArthur writes “The issue of how Gentiles were to be saved could not be settled in one local congregation.  The decision would have to be made in Jerusalem by God-ordained leaders of the church, the apostles and elders (cf. Eph. 2:20),” “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.”    

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Satan is tricky and so I need to have my spiritual armor on each and every day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to study the Word of God each day as this only teaches the truth.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Bless them” (Romans 12:14).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who did the Jews want released instead of Jesus?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/22/2018 10:12 AM

"Intro to Acts 15:1-35"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/21/2018 9:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Acts 15:1-35

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 15:1-35

            Message of the verses:  “1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. 4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses."  6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8  "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9  and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me. 14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 15 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 ’AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, 17 SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’ 18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO. 19 "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, 20  but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. 21 “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath."  22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas-Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren, 23 and they sent this letter by them, "The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. 24 “Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, 25 it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 “Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28  "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." 30 So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. 31 When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. 32 Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message. 33 After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out. 34 [[But it seemed good to Silas to remain there.]] 35 But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching with many others also, the word of the Lord.”

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary that goes along with these verses “The Jerusalem Council: Is Salvation by Law or Grace?”  I will seek to write an introduction to these very important verses, perhaps more important than people may realize.

            In his commentary MacArthur speaks of different church councils that took place to settle doctrinal issues, but he then writes: 

“As important as those councils were, the Jerusalem Council, described in this chapter, was the first and most significant of all.  For it fixed the most momentous doctrinal question of all:  What must a person do to be saved?  The apostles and elders successfully resisted the pressure to impose Jewish legalism and ritualism on the Gentile believers.  In other words, they forbade the inclusion of works as a part of salvation.  They affirmed for all time the truth that salvation is wholly by God’s grace through faith alone, apart from any human efforts.”

            It was very difficult for some of the believing Jews at the time when Christianity was first offered to the Gentiles salvation, and many wanted the new Gentile believers to become Jewish proselytes, but this was not the plan of God.  God was about to set the Jews aside because of their rejection of their Messiah and would primarily be dealing with the Gentiles; however there will always be a saved remnant of Jews during the church age. As we have seen in the study of Acts 13-14 which was about Paul and Barnabas going to the Gentiles that their greatest enemy to the preaching of the Gospel came from the Jews and so we can see great conflict was happening.   The truth is that there is always going to be conflict when the Gospel is successfully preached as all men are born spiritually dead and have no desire to truly accept the forgiveness that Christ offers through His death on the cross, and that is why when a person is truly saved he or she receives an effectual call from the Holy Spirit and is given faith to receive the forgiveness that Christ offers.

            Once again I cannot over stress the importance of the Jerusalem Council as if Satan would have gotten his way at this council then the church would have certainly ended, for God does not desire to have anything added to receiving salvation as it is a gift from God.  In today’s churches and perhaps from the early church age some have stated that a person must be baptized in order to have salvation.  Baptism comes after salvation as it reflects back on what Christ has done for you on the cross, and also speaks of His burial and then His resurrection.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “West” (Exodus 10:19).

Today’s Bible question:  “What should we do to our persecutors?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/21/2018 10:06 AM

             

"Reverence" (Acts 14:26-28)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/20/2018 10:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  “Reverence” 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 14:26-28  

            Message of the verses:  “26 From there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. 27 When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they spent a long time with the disciples.”

            I have been around missionaries a lot since I became a believer in 1974.  When I joined the first church after becoming a believer I was placed on the missionary committee along with my wife who knew more about the many missionaries that our church supported than any person in the church.  I later became the chairman of the missionary committee and truly enjoyed when the missionaries came to speak at our church.  The way our church works then and the way the church works that we go today is that missionaries come in to present their work and after that there is a decision as to whether or not we will give money to them on a monthly basis to support them for the work that they do.  Once a missionary is off what is called “deputation” they are ready to go to the field that the Lord has called them to go.  Most missionaries then will serve a total of four years on the field and then after that time is up they will come back to report to the churches that are funding them.  As we read through our verses this morning we can see that the way that I have described how we work with missionaries comes from this section as Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the church at Antioch and then were on the field starting new churches and then after a while they came back to the church at Antioch who sent them out to report to them what the Lord had done through their work. 

            There are some differences today than what we see in this passage.  Let me give an example:  We have some friends who began their missionary work in Africa and they stayed there for a fairly long time helping to begin churches with other missionaries who were there.  After a while they believed that the Lord was calling them to go to Vietnam and they stayed there helping to begin churches until they were forced to leave by the government.  Next they went to Cambodia and worked to begin a church there which took a fairly long time.  The wife is a medical doctor and so she worked at the hospital there and in other places and the husband was the preacher along with being a professor in Bible studies.  It took them a fairly long time to make sure that the church that was begun there to become stabilized and when that time came and a Cambodian pastor was in place they moved back to the US and retired.  Well that is not exactly true when I say retired I mean that the churches that were supporting them did not have to do so any more, but this wonderful couple went back to Cambodia and also served in Bangladesh for three months last year and are planning to do the same this year.  It has been a great privilege of ours to get to know this couple and even help support them from time to time as they have followed the way that God has designed for missionaries to work as seen in this passage.  It is even our privilege to have one of their children to stay with us earlier this year and we are praying about whether or not to begin to support her as she will be going to Myanmar to help to translate the Bible in one of the languages that is in that country.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to want to continue to do missionary work, and I believe that is by writing and continue to write my Spiritual Diaries and put them onto my blogs.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will give me the right words to write that go onto my Spiritual Diaries that the Holy Spirit can use to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ as He uses them in a way that He desires to bring about salvation, growth, and revival in the lives of those who read them.

Answer to yesterdays Bible question:  “Jeremiah.”

Today’s Bible question:  “From which direction did the wind blow that took away the plague of locusts?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/20/2018 10:52 AM  

As I was posting this SD onto my blog this morning I saw that I had missed a short portion from the outline that I follow from John MacArthur’s commentary entitled “Commitment” which covers verse 24-25 of Acts 14 and so I will quote from his commentary this very short paragraph after I quote Acts 14:24-25.

24 They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia. 25 When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.”

            “Exhausted by their travels and hard work in the proclamation of the gospel, the two missionaries headed home.  Having passed through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, to the city of Perga.  Others may have rested before going down to the seaport of Attalia and booking passage for home, but not Paul and Barnabas.  Such was their commitment to their evangelistic calling and they did not leave until they had spoken the word in Perga…Paul and Barnabas apparently had not preached in Perga the first time they were there.  Leaving nothing undone, they proceeded to do so.  They were committed, no matter what their circumstances, to fulfilling their calling.”

PT-2 "Caring" (Acts 14:21-23)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/19/2018 10:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  PT-2 “Caring”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 14:21-23

            Message of the verses: “21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

            We want to pick up by looking at Paul and Barnabas’s exhortation which was twofold and can be seen in verse 22 where they exhort them to “continue in the faith” and they told their listeners that thought they may go through may tribulations that they will enter the kingdom of God.  John MacArthur writes that “Perseverance in the Christian life is a ceaseless warfare against the forces of the kingdom of darkness (cf. Eph. 6:10ff.).  Christians therefore need to be reminded to expect hardships and persecution and not be dismayed by them.  Jesus promised that ‘in the world you have tribulation’ (John 16:22).  ‘Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus,’ Paul exhorted Timothy, since ‘all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Tim. 2:3; 3:12).  James gave the good news that such tribulation produces spiritual endurance (James 1:2-4), and Peter confirms that truth in 1 Peter 5:10).”

            We now look at the next key to effective follow-up, and that is organization.  Paul and Barnabas would not be spending much time with these new believers as they were only stopping to see how their walk with the Lord was going and so in their brief time there they appointed elders as seen in verse 23.  Elders are under shepherds of the Great Shepherd and they were to lead the flock that was entrusted to them.  Being an elder or pastor is a call from the Lord, and I have to say that I have listened to some pastors that made me think that they were listening in on a party line when God was calling another person to be a Pastor.  Luke goes on to write in verse 23 that the seriousness of being an elder was seen by Paul and Barnabas’s praying and fasting.

            Paul and Barnabas did all that they could humaningly do and so we read that “they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

            I just want to say that this process that we are looking at is still going on today as missionaries leave their home after being called by the Lord and go to places where they may even suffer greatly for the Lord in order to get churches started.  I know missionaries who had gone to medical school to become great doctors where they could have stayed in this country and made a lot of money, and yet they yielded to the call of the Holy Spirit to leave all and then go to the mission field where the Lord was calling them.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Lord has laid upon my heart to use the Spiritual Diaries that I have been writing for many years to put them onto the internet in the form of blogs.  It took me a while to do this as I have been writing these since sometime in 1993, but I don’t have all of them on my computer.  I am thankful to the Lord for allowing me to do this for the cause of Christ and pray each day for those who the Spirit of God has called to read them to be blessed by God, and for those who do not know Christ I also pray that that will be taken care of and when we all get to heaven we will be able to talk about this.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will continue to use the Spiritual Diaries that I write each day to bring glory to my Lord and Savior.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Festus” (Acts 24:27).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who wrote Lamentations?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/19/2018 10:58 AM

PT-1 Caring" (Acts 14:21-23)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2018 12:22 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-1 Caring

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 14:21-23

            Message of the verses:  “21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

            Let us go back to the first chapter of the book of Acts to look at what the Lord told the Apostles they were to do after He went back to heaven.  “6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but 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."”  This is a similar statement that we see in Matthew chapter 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."”  Now as we look at these two statements, one from Acts, and one from Matthew we see as we look at our verses for today’s SD that Paul and Barnabas were doing this exact same thing Jesus wanted them to do.

            Paul and Barnabas went to Derbe after what happened to Paul in Lystra as we mentioned in our last SD.  After being there for a while we read that “they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.”  Paul and Barnabas were returning to see how the disciples that they had made were doing after they had left them, and I imagine to see if they were growing in the Lord, and also to encourage them to walk with the Lord.  We do not read of any trouble that they were having similar to what they had experienced before, but perhaps they were only visiting the believers and so were not really exposed to those who gave them trouble before.

            John MacArthur writes that “Paul and Barnabas’s nurture of their children in the faith involved at least four elements.”  Now we will look at the first two elements in our SD today and then look at the last two in our next SD.

            Their first task is seen in verse 22 “22 strengthening the souls of the disciples.”  MacArthur writes that “Strengthening’ is from episterizo a word used elsewhere in Acts to speak of strengthening believers (15:32, 41; 18:23).”  This is one of the functions of every good Pastor to do, and that is to strengthen those in his congregation as he preaches and teaches the Word of God to them each week. 

            The second task they were doing has to do with encouraging them to continue in the faith.  Sometimes when things get hard for a person they may want to take matters into their own hands, and that is exactly what they should not do, for these are times when we need the Lord more, and so Paul and Barnabas were encourage them to walk with the Lord.  Barnabas did a lot of encouraging as seen in the book of Acts.  This is one of the functions of the Holy Spirit as He comes along side of people to encourage them. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To Zion” (Isaiah 35:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who replaced Felix as governor?

Answer in our next SD.

3/18/2018 12:50 PM 

 

"Persistence" (Acts 14:19-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/17/2018 11:01 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “Persistence”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 14:19-21

            Message of the verses:  “19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20 But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,”

            I know that in some cases that when Paul was ministering in one city and had to leave because people in that city were abusing him because of the gospel that they would follow them to another city and cause trouble for him there.  However it is not known if this is why these people from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra or whether or not they were perhaps there on business.  At any rate they were there and they certainly caused trouble for Paul.  I mentioned in an earlier SD that perhaps Paul had actually died from this stoning.  Many years ago when I was at Moody’s Founders Week I heard a pastor, don’t remember his name, but he said that he believed that Paul actually died here and that is when he had his trip to heaven as seen in 2 Corinthians 12.  I certainly don’t know if this is what really happened, but it does sound reasonable to me.  These men won over some of the people in Lystra and convinced them to stone Paul and the text says that they supposed him to be dead.  Luke does not record what it was that was so troubling to them from what Paul was speaking about, but probably they did not want to hear about Jesus and that He came lived, died, and rose again.

            John MacArthur argues that Paul did not die from this stoning (perhaps he heard the same pastor at Founders week that I did), and he gives some reasons from the words used in these verses.  “Supposing’ is from Nomizo, which usually means ‘to suppose something that is not true.’  Nomizo appears in Acts 7:25, where Moses wrongly supposed the Israelites would understand that God had sent him to deliver them.  In Acts 8:20, it describes, Simon’s false assumption that he could buy the Holy Spirit’s power.  Nomizo is used in Acts 16:27 to describe the Philippian jailer’s nearly fatal supposition that the prisoners had escaped…The predominant New Testament usage of nomizo argues that Paul was not dead, and the crowd’s supposition was incorrect.”

            I will not dwell on this as his arguments for Paul to have died and went to heaven as talked about in 2 Corinthians 12 are valid and so we will move on to say that the men who stoned him thought he was dead and did not realize that he was alive. At any rate after they left Paul went into the city.  Paul may not have died but I suppose that it took some courage for him to get up and go into the city in the condition he must have been in.

            Even though Paul had to be hurting from this experience he and Barnabas moved on to Derbe which was thirty miles away.  This very long trip must have take a long time, but because of Paul’s love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry that He had given Him he continued to go and preach the gospel.  Sometimes when we read passages like this we seem to forget the agony that Paul went through to continue to preach the gospel in all the different cities he went to.  We must remember what the Lord said to Ananias:  “"Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake."”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In my prayer time I have included a section to pray for the persecuted church, those who are suffering each and every day for the cause of Christ, and there are many who are suffering for His cause today, so it is good for those of us who are not suffering in the ways that they are to pray for them each day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will give me continued wisdom as I study for my Sunday school lessons on the book of Revelation each week.  This week we begin chapter five and although I have my lesson plan for the entire chapter I do not think that I will get through the entire chapter tomorrow.  I desire to serve the Lord in teaching this book to those who are in my class.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Paul” (Acts 18:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where shall the ransomed of the Lord return?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/17/2018 11:45 AM

           

PT-3 "Humility" (Acts 14:8-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2018 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Humility”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Acts 14:8-18

            Message of the verses:  “8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us." 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. 16 "In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." 18 Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.”

            In our last SD we ended up talking about evolution with a quote from John MacArthur, talking about how this false theory, which many in the world today think is fact, has caused many people to stop thinking about God as a creator and thus causing much trouble because they take God out of the picture, God who all mankind is accountable to.  Also we talked about the phrase from verse 16 “in the generation gone by permitted all the nations to go their own ways,” and this is speaking of God doing this.  I have mentioned that one of the faults of the children of Israel was that they did not spread the Word of God to Gentiles, which is something that they were called to do, therefore the Old Testament which was written by the children of Israel was not spread around the known world making it difficult for any Gentile to see.  After Jesus Christ came to earth and died on the cross for our sins and then went back to heaven the church age began soon after that and the good news of the gospel was beginning to be spread around the world which is what Paul and Barnabas were doing with this first missionary trip.  Paul goes on in verse 17 to say to these men at Lystra “and yet He (God), did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”  Paul is saying that even though there was little understanding of the OT Scriptures God did give a witness by what we would call nature, as people could look at the stars and see the fact that they received rain to water their fields in order to grow food, things that we would call common grace.  Psalm 19 is a good place to see how one can understand that there is a God by looking to the heavens.

            Now I want to go back to verse sixteen where we finished up yesterday and look at a quote that John MacArthur has in his commentary from a man named Albert Barns as he explains that God allowed them to “go their own ways”

“To conduct themselves without the restraints and instructions of a written law.  They were permitted to follow their own reason and passions, and their own system of religion.  God gave them no written laws, and sent to them no messengers.”

MacArthur goes on to write “Those times ended with the coming of Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).  Since then, although ‘having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent’ (Acts 17:30), and the gospel is to be preached to every creature (Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47).”

            Now as we finish with verse 18 “Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them,” we see that because these people were so stooped in their pagan religion that they could not help themselves to try and offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, and as we continue to look at the next paragraph beginning with verse 19 we will see that even though they saw a great miracle and wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas and sacrifice to them that when they could not they decided to try and kill them.

            MacArthur concludes this section:

“This incident reveals the humility of Paul and Barnabas.  To be acclaimed a god was the highest honor imaginable in the Greco-Roman world, and was much sought after (cf. Acts 12:22).  Yet they disavowed any such notions about themselves and instead pointed the pagan crowd to the Creator God.  They successfully handled the temptation to succumb to pride.  Had Paul and Barnabas yielded to that temptation, it would have destroyed their usefulness.  Those who seek glory for themselves are on the path to spiritual weakness and impotence.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Satan temps me in different ways which is what he was doing with Paul and Barnabas, and so I must do like they did and not succumb to those temptations.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Put on the spiritual armor and use it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “By using the Word of God” Matthew 4:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said “From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/16/2018 9:29 AM  

 

PT-2 "Humility" (Acts 14:8-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/15/2018 9:37 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “Humility”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Acts 14:8-18

            Message of the verses:  “8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us." 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. 16  "In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17  and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." 18 Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.”

            We begin this Spiritual Diary by looking at verse eleven.  What we see in this verse is what we might say is a bizarre reaction to the miracle that God did through Paul as those who were around this man believed that the gods that they worship came down to earth.  I have no idea of how many gods these people worshiped, but there were many for sure and as we know they were worshiping either demons or Satan but not realizing it.  John MacArthur writes something very interesting about this:  “This strange and surprising turn of events had its roots in local folklore.  There was a tradition in Lystra (recorded by the Roman poet Ovid, who died in A. D. 17) that the gods of Zeus and Hermes once came to earth incognito.  When they arrived at Lystra and asked for food and lodging everyone refused them.  Finally, an old peasant named Philemon and his wife, Baucis, took them in. Their inhospitable neighbors were drowned in a flood sent by the vengeful gods.  Philemon and Baucis, however, saw their humble cottage turned into a magnificent temple where they served as priest priestess.  After their deaths, they turned into two stately trees.”

            Now if the people in Lystra knew about this story, and it seems that they did they did not want to make the same mistake as their ancestors had made so they “began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”  I have heard stories of Paul’s appearance, that he was rather short and not really good looking and so this may have been why Barnabas was called Zeus.  However they identified Paul with Hermes because of him being the chief speaker and Hermes was the messenger of the gods.  It is probably safe to say that because these people were speaking in the Lycaonian language that neither Paul nor Barnabas understood what was going on. 

            In verse thirteen we see that the priest of Zeus who had a temple outside their town did not want to be outdone and so he was bringing a sacrifice to offer to Paul and Barnabas.  I think that we know Paul well enough that he was not going to put up with this and so both he and Barnabas tore their clothes which was a Jewish expression of horror and revulsion and blasphemy as we saw the high priest do when he though Jesus was blaspheming. 

            Continuing from verse fourteen we read that Paul and Barnabas began “crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things?  We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you in order that you should turn from these vain things.’”  Paul and Barnabas certainly knew that they were not any kind of god, but they surely did know that they represented the One True God to these people and wanted them to know this in no uncertain terms. 

            This crowd at Lystra, that is the Gentiles had little if any understanding of the Old Testament and so they had little idea of what Paul and Barnabas were talking about, and so Paul did not talk about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from the Scriptures but they proclaimed the “living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them. A little later on in the book of Acts we will see that Paul used the same way of talking to the unbelievers on Mars hill in Athens.  (Acts 17:22-31). 

            John MacArthur speaks to my heart as he comments on verse sixteen, a verse that I am having trouble understanding.  He writes “There was a tolerance on God’s past toward sinners who did not have the full revelation of His holy will. 

            “It is important to realize at this point that nothing has ravaged gospel preaching to the untaught world more than the theory of evolution.  Because it poses an explanation of the existence of everything without a Creator or moral lawgiver, people who accept it fail to see any need for God or a first cause.  Thus they cut themselves off from all that creation, reason, conscience, and providence are designed to do—namely lead them to God.”  It looks like we will be further looking at the theory of evolution when we get to chapter seventeen of Acts.

            I was listening to my favorite political commentator on the radio yesterday who mentioned a man who had just died who was, in a worldly way, was very smart.  This man stated that our earth only had 200 more years before it would be uninhabitable and suggested that we begin to explore other planets to live on.  The commentator went on to talk about what evolutionists believe on how the universe was created, the big bang theory.  He stated that in this theory there was a ball about the size of a golf or tennis ball which expanded in a large explosion to create what we have now.  My question is where did this ball come from?  I will tell a short story that explains what these foolish people believe.  There was a man who believed that he could create a man out of dirt, the way that God did it.  So the man was talking to God stating that he could do something just like God did and so he went and got some dirt and was about to show God that he could create a man when God looked down at him and said “Get your own dirt.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  If it were left up to me and any other believer to convince a person that they need to trust Christ as their Savior and Lord then it would never happen.  It is a true miracle when someone receives Christ.  Believers are only to give out the message so that the Spirit of God can use that message to give an effectual call to the unbeliever.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Money” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Jesus overcome the temptation of Satan?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/15/2018 10:36 AM