Category: Devotions

What kind of Messiah do you have?

Acts 17: 3 “… on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.”

Paul, Silas and Timothy are persuading the Jews that they missed Jesus when he was here because they were looking for the wrong Messiah. Their Christ was political and would powerfully remove the Roman oppression. Jesus Christ came to suffer and die and this was prophesied in their Scriptures but they were blinded to them. The team use those Scriptures to prove Jesus was the Messiah, he was God’s Son and he was before all time. This Jesus HAD TO suffer and rise from the dead. Importantly, this Jesus is alive today.

This was such a difficult teaching to hear because for the Jew their Messiah is not what we understand as a Saviour who lays his life down.  It is impossible that in one sentence the words Messiah, suffer and rise from the dead are together!

Their Messiah is: A political leader descended from King David. A professional of the Jewish law and the commandments within it. A charismatic leader. A military leader. A great judge.

The most important thing is this. The Jewish Messiah is a human being, not a god or a demi-god. He has certainly not come from heaven and once he is dead he doesn’t rise again.

The team were demonstrating from the Jewish Scriptures that Jesus was their Messiah but that he was indeed eternal and so is alive today because he rose 3 days after he died.

The most important thing they were demonstrating was the aliveness of Jesus. He is eternal.

Everyone needs to discover what kind of Messiah they have or are searching for?

Even the Christians! Some are so earthly focused that they have reduced their relationship with Jesus to all about what happens here and now. But the offer of Jesus is to discover and live your life through the filter of eternity.

Jesus had said many things to the Jews that had got him into trouble but his claim of pre-existence was the one they balked at the most. Especially when he said he was alive before their ancestral father, Abraham, was born.

John 8:58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

This was the most incredible, confrontational and boldest statement Jesus ever made.

We cannot contain Him to a time and a place and a nation. We cannot hold on to Him, He is beyond our grasp, we cannot understand all that there is to know about Him, He is beyond our capability to think. He is pre-existent, before Abraham was born, I am!

There have been no accidents in your life, neither your birth, nor your death, nor anything in between. He knows the beginning and the end for each one of us.

We can invite Jesus into our existence – but there is a far greater invitation: for us to live our lives in His pre-existence in knowing that He knows everything there is to know about us in the big picture of life. He left His pre-existence to enter our existence so that we can live our lives in the light of our own eternal existence with Him.

That is the Messiah we explain and prove by words and our life.

Strategy needs intentional practices.

 

Acts 17:2  “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures”

 

What ways do you have? Why do you do the things you do? Some people don’t know they have customs. They don’t know they have routines. But they do.

The key for strategy is intentionality.

Habits are formed randomly and often without intention. Customs are formed with purpose.

Paul would always go to the synagogue first. It was the Jew first. This is why he went there in Thessalonica, because he always did.

 

What customs do you have? Why do you do what you do? Ask someone to name a few of your customs. Then see how surprised you are. You should be able to name some of them yourself because if you are being strategic in life then you have set customs in place intentionally.

“In order for me to do that I need to regularly do this”

 

 

Strategy

Acts 17:1 “1 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.”

 

Today I am in Chennai with colleagues who have been training Pastors and leaders. Over the last few years we have trained thousands of leaders. There are thousands still waiting. We have been talking how best to do this with limited resources of personnel and finance. We have been talking strategy.

 

Recently I was talking with a missionary who was struggling with the passion needed for where they were placed. It happens. Thankfully at the end of the Skype call the missionary was already beginning to be energised again. How? We talked strategy for the next 12 months.

 

We move into a new chapter today and we read how Paul, Silas and Timothy travel over 100 miles to Thessalonica. They pass through 2 cities which were apparently beautiful and significant. Nothing happens in these 2 cities. They seem uninterested to do any gospel work there. Why? I believe because of strategy. Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, a major seaport and trade route. It was here where the gospel could be taken to the whole province.

The point is sometimes you have to walk past what is beautiful and significant in order to be strategic for what is best.

How far and how wide can you see? Look further. How will you impact your world? How will you fulfil your Father’s will? How can you do more? The answer is always strategy. Find some paper and pen and get a plan today.

 

Appreciating Luke

Acts 16:40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

So here is the new fledgling church that Paul and Silas came to encourage before they departed the city. The members of that church were probably the slave girl, Lydia the business lady and her household, the jailer and his household and likely others. Plus Luke!

“Then they left” Luke writes. Obviously they left without him. Luke stayed to help, maybe to bring some more vision and organisation to the church. Certainly it was to help them.

Mission involves people who go but also people who stay so that others can keep going.

I have just come back to my hotel room having been at the most amazing service here in Chennai. The Church rents out a very large auditorium and the work that is needed comes from a group of dedicated members who just make it happen. The Pastor doesn’t do this work. His ministry is different. He is the visionary leader and has an expanding ministry to several nations. It is the people he has trained up who keep the Church functioning with their celebration services. Of course they are not the exception. Around the world this can be replicated every day of the week.

Why do I mention this? Simply because although my role as International Missions Director is to encourage people to GO into all the world and I am working towards seeing a global church planting movement in every nation of the world, I also know the huge importance of those who stay behind.

We need the ‘Luke’ who will say “It’s okay you keep going I will stay behind and help structure the Church, lead the Church, strengthen the Church and encourage the Church. I will help the Church.”

In whatever capacity, if you are a ‘Luke’ today, thank you, the Church needs you, you are indeed very important to the future. Thank you for staying.

When it all goes wrong …

Acts 16:39 “They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.”

They came to appease but Luke doesn’t say Paul and Silas were appeased.

Sometimes saying “Oh it doesn’t matter” is the wrong response.

Peace at what cost?

If there was an injustice then call it so. No matter if everything sits under the sovereignty of God and all things work together for good to them that love God. The all things are not the good things for they wouldn’t need to work together for good. The all things are the bad things that happen to us. Let us call them bad. Often the perpetrators only seek appeasement because they fear they themselves may be in trouble. They apologise for what they have done but with hidden agendas.

Were Paul and Silas appeased? We do not know. Maybe they did not care for apologies and restoration. There was no comment and perhaps that is the best approach.

They escorted them from the prison as that is what Paul had ordered.

Paul and Silas were dragged into prison bleeding and battered from the severe flogging. They exited heads held high.

Order your parade. The past may have looked like a defeat but today can be your victory walk. The march out of the prison was one of purpose. They had not been defeated. They were not broken. I can imagine their chests inflated as they let the crowds know they were children of a majestic King.

They requested they leave the city but they couldn’t command them to.

They would leave the city, but they would go when they wanted and not at some request from those who had injured them.

Shake the dust off your feet still applies today. Walk on. Don’t look back. It is time for a new season.

The presence of God in your life means that some people do not want you around. They are intimidated by you. They know they cannot control you.

When it all goes wrong how you respond to the closure of that chapter becomes very important to the overall story.

So, be careful what you say, walk tall and move on in your own time.

Let us alarm the enemy

Acts 16:38 “The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. “

Power, rights and authority, this is what Paul and Silas had as Roman citizens which they now only make known after they have been severely flogged and thrown into a dark prison cell fastened to stocks. They legally should not have been flogged nor thrown in prison and the magistrates who ordered it now knew it. Worse than that, those who ordered the punishment without a fair trial were now in danger of punishment themselves. They were alarmed and they needed to be.

The enemy of your soul knows that you are a citizen of heaven. Paul states we have such a citizenship in Philippians 3:20. The whole of the New Testament is a journey of the revealing of that citizenship. It contains teaching regarding:

• We are new creations in Christ
• The Holy Spirit is living within and we are His Temple.
• We are being transformed to be more like Jesus
• Our attention is on eternal things not the temporary earthly things.
• We are ambassadors to this earth, it is not our home nor our destiny.

Literally there is no end to the list regarding our citizenship. However it can be understood in those 3 elements of power, rights and authority.

What alarmed the magistrates was not just that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, but that Paul and Silas knew they were and were apparently beginning to talk with that citizenship firmly in mind.

That is exactly the same today. The enemy of your soul does not get alarmed at who you are in Christ. But what alarms him is when you begin to voice this, move in it and begin to declare changes because of who you are. This is what alarms him!

We hide our rights

Acts 16:37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

 

Paul had become a Roman citizen by birth. Although he was born into a Jewish family because this was in the city of Tarsus, a province of Cilicia, it granted him true citizenship because of its status by Rome. There were only 2 other ways you could gain citizenship: by giving a huge amount of money or by military service.

As a citizen Paul had the right to vote, the right to make legal contracts, have property and be immune from some tax duties. He also had the right to insist on a legal trial if he ever needed it and he could even appeal to Caesar himself.

Paul was protected because he could never be tortured or flogged and never receive the death penalty unless it could be proven he was guilty of treason. As a citizen he would probably carry around with him a birth certificate or a certificate of citizenship. Later on chapter 22 we will read how Paul would use his citizenship to prevent him being flogged in Jerusalem.

So why am I reminding you of this?

It is because Paul did not declare his citizenship until after they had been severely flogged and thrown into the prison! He kept it hidden until now, until he was going to be released.

He kept silent and surrendered his Roman right. By doing so he shared in the sufferings of Christ, he was beaten like his Lord and Saviour, he was carrying his own cross.

We have a citizenship in heaven. We have been born again, a new birth, new creations in Christ Jesus. We have been given power, rights and authority.

There are times when we will choose to move in those elements and we will know the protection and the power of God against circumstances that are unbearable.

But there are days when we need to surrender our rights. There are times when we know it is the right thing to do, when our immunity from suffering is waived, when we become dust again and we know the pain of living.

Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He’s coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

(Casting Crowns)

It is then as a citizen of heaven coming under the attack of the enemy that we truly know the fellowship of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, we know Him, we are on purpose, in destiny for something perhaps we do not yet know, but it is well with our soul because we know Him in a way we have never known.

You can Go!

Acts 16: 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

You are free!

The enemy has declared it!

So why did God send the violent earthquake? It wasn’t to release Paul and Silas because they would obviously be released the morning after. The earthquake and the prison door flying open was for the jailer and the household.

God moves for those who don’t know Him.

Within only a few hours the jailer is using the language of the early church, ‘Go in peace.’

God moves hugely for the smallness of humanity. There is nothing God wouldn’t do to rescue us. God goes big for us who are really small!

Amen!

 

 

 

The power of love that hurts.

Acts 16:35

“When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.”

Paul and Silas were in prison twice.

They went there the night before after being severely flogged. Thrown into the inner cell, bruised and bleeding, they could have sulked but they praised and pandemonium broke out because God broke in.

The jailer brought them out of the prison into his home and during the night he and his household heard the gospel, were baptised, washed their wounds and gave them a meal.

Before daylight Paul and Silas went back into the prison voluntarily.

They did this to protect the jailer’s life.

Here we see a most amazing fundamental truth of love and friendship.

Love will cause you to willingly be contained so that your friend can be free.

Love is not self-seeking. Love is the cross. Love is painful as it promotes your friend. Love lays down. Love means you go back in to the darkness of the prison and you are fastened into the stocks so that you cannot move and once again there is no hope. Love means you don’t get your dream so that your friend gets theirs. Grief is not only for loss but it is for love.

There is nothing more powerful than this love, a love that hurts the one who loves.

Let’s eat!

Acts 16:34 “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”

Once their wounds had been washed they were ready for something to eat.

They had been severely flogged, with many injuries they had been fastened into stocks in a dark inner cell of the prison. Eating a meal was not on their agenda. When you are hurt your appetite leaves.

There are times when you have to minister whilst you are hurt and hungry. But God has a plan to wash your wounds and He will have even the most unlikely of people ready to do this. With your wounds washed then you will be ready to eat.

I realise this is a generalisation, however …

Hurting people eat junk food or no food making things worse.

Healed people eat meals that satisfy their bodies.

• If Jesus referred to food as doing His Fathers will then we can certainly say this:

The reason why some have shallow discipleship and do not grow in the purposes of God is because of the hurts that they still carry in their lives.

• If Jesus told us that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled, then we can certainly say this:

There are many who today long for justice in an unfair world or justice from within the battles of their own soul, these are targets for the grace of God which will fill their searching lives.

• If Jesus told his disciples he wouldn’t eat the supper again until he returns and the angel in John’s revelation announces the great end-time supper of the Lamb, then we can certainly say this:

There are people whose life is one knock after another, their world seems cruel, they are attacked at every turn, but if they hold on to their Saviour then they will sit down with Him to eat, it is our guaranteed promise.

Today get your wounds washed and let’s eat!