"Communion" (Acts 21:17-20a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/1/2018 6:25 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Communion

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 21:17-20a

            Message of the verses:  “17 After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it they began glorifying God;”

 

            We have to believe that Paul made it to Jerusalem by Pentecost, which of course was his goal.  We can see that the brethren in Jerusalem were very happy to see Paul, and I suppose that was because their trip was tiring that they wanted to rest up before going into see James and the rest of the elders the next day.  One thing for sure is that the brethren were pleased with the gift that Paul was bringing to them that was collected from the Gentile churches.  I have mentioned that in Paul’s letter to the Romans that he asked for prayer that the believers in Jerusalem would accept this generous gift provided by the Gentile believers, as his fear was that the church would be divided over the fact that there were many Gentiles who had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and perhaps would continue to show their disdain for the Gentiles.  Paul’s prayers were answered as the Jewish Church would have nothing to say but to praise the Lord for what the Holy Spirit of God was doing through Paul and his missionary team.

           

            We see some interesting things that have happened to the church at Jerusalem, changes from the last time we talked about this church.  First of all we see that the church was being headed up by James and all the elders which were different than before.  It was ruled by the Apostles before, and headed up by Peter, the apostle to the Jews.  Now it is headed up by James who was the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  There are some “religions” that will not believe that the Lord Jesus Christ had siblings, which would be half brothers and sisters, but that is what the Bible teaches.  They will teach that the James spoken of here was the apostle James, but that could not be true in that he was killed as seen earlier in the book of Acts, in fact he was the first Apostle to be killed for his belief in Christ, but not the last.

 

            John MacArthur writes about the collection for the Jerusalem church:  “Strangely, Luke does not mention the presentation of the collection.  In fact, except for an allusion to it in 24:17, he does not refer to it at all in Acts.  We can assume, however, that it was presented and gratefully accepted.”  “Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings (Acts 24:17).”

 

            In verse 19 we see that Paul began to relate to James and the elders the many things that the Spirit of God had done in building the Gentile churches through the ministry of Paul.  Paul for sure did not boast of this but was humble in that the Lord was using him and his team to bring many Gentiles to a saving knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

            When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 we see that he was surely against any hero worship: 

 

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase (KJV).”

 

            As we look at the first half of verse 20 we read “And when they heard it they began glorifying God;”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Praising the Lord over a soul that is saved is probably the greatest feeling that a believer can have.  I have a friend, a rather new friend, a man that I have the greatest respect for even before we became closer, and he knew a man who is now in his mid 90’s for a long time and had witnessed to him on many occasions.  This man rejected the gospel many, many times as he wanted nothing to do with Christ’s offer to save him.  He became very ill some time ago and my friend continued to talk to him about the Lord, but still he wanted nothing to do with Him.  I received a number of text messages from my friend who stated that the human will of this man had been broken by the Spirit of God and he received Christ as his Savior yesterday.  My friend said he prayed all by himself and afterwards went to sleep as he was unable to sleep because of the restlessness of his heart, which not was at peace with the Lord.  Our entire Sunday school class has been praying for Charles, and now very soon he will be in the presence of his Lord.  I am reminded of this passage from Jude’s letter:  “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire (Jude 1:23a).  Charles was pulled out of the fire and will soon be in the presence of the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will use the words that I spoke to a lady who checked my eyes yesterday, that He will convict her of her sin and bring her to Himself to save her.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “1 Chronicles.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Why did the Israelites want a king instead of a judge?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

8/1/2018 7:03 AM