Missions Paul

Remembering the yesterday people.
Acts 7:15
“Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.”

Jacob and his sons including Joseph all died in Egypt. The Israelites went into Canaan after they had died. The generation didn’t see Canaan but they were part of the Canaan story. In fact, Canaan would never have happened if they hadn’t lived and died in Egypt.

Alan, Doris, Tony, Elizabeth, Steve, Terry, Zena, Margaret, Ken, Roy, Betty, Gladys, Fred, Vera, Mary, Mrs Lawes (I only referred to her by her surname!). I buried all these people and more in the past. The Church where I Pastored saw more moves of God after they died than before and they still do.
However, they were all part of the story. If they had not lived, if they had not served in the Church, then the story would have been much different.

Think today of those who have died. But how they influenced you and the story of your life, of your Church.
Make an effort to keep their story alive. For it is not only about now that counts. Sometimes I listen to people or read things on Facebook about some latest development as if it was the creation of the world that had taken place in that evening service. Though I am the first to rejoice in such moves of God and we certainly need them, perspective is needed. Honour the past. Now could never exist without yesterday.
Who do you remember?

Get to the main point
Acts 7:14
“After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy- five in all.”

Now I wouldn’t normally use this verse to write a devotion on Easter Sunday but as you know we are going through Acts so we are sticking with it!

This verse doesn’t look contentious, but it really is. Muslims and atheists use this as evidence that the Bible is in error.

Genesis 46:26-27 There was seventy.
Exodus 1: 5 There was seventy.
Deuteronomy 10:22 There was seventy.
Acts 7:14 Stephen says there was seventy-five.

So which is it, 70 or 75?

There are many suggestions of how Stephens numbering could get to 75 with the inclusion of 5 others.
Luke who is recording this certainly doesn’t adjust Stephens speech in order to make it in line with the Old Testament. He leaves the anomaly there.
Whatever the reason it is showing that God was going to build a big nation from a small number and that’s the point.

Back to Easter Sunday. As the above is useful.
Each gospel writer tells a different story but the point remains the same: Jesus was resurrected.
Yes atheists and Muslims dispute it.
But the stories are consistent.
Even under persecution the apostles never changed the story.
People cannot make up such an event and get away with it.
The gap between the resurrection and the story being written is very short in comparison to other undisputed historical events that have 10 times the gap.
There may have different parts of the story bring focused upon and that gives us a more fuller picture. However what is the point?
Jesus was raised from the grave. That’s the point.
The next question is the most important:
What does that mean for me?

Revelation
Easter Saturday
Acts 7:13
“On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.”

The story of Joseph and his brothers is a fascinating story of forgiveness and grace.
Today on our Easter Saturday we wait. Jesus in the grave. If He is who He says He is tomorrow He will rise.
The emotional part of Joseph’s story is the revealing of who he was to his brothers.
The crux of our faith is that Jesus is made known to us. He has revealed He is the Son of God.
I recall the story of one of our missionaries who was preaching on Easter Sunday morning 3 years ago, when an Imam walked into the church and sat down at the back of the service. At the end the man talked with our missionary and told him his story. On Good Friday he began to fast and pray in order to seek Muhammed. He wanted Muhammed to reveal himself. But there was no visit. All through the next day the Koranic teacher prayed and fasted but there was no revelation. Then in the early hours of Easter Sunday morning Jesus same to him and revealed who He was. He told him He was the Son of God and explained the way of salvation. The Imam gave his life to Jesus.
On that Easter Sunday our missionary prayed with him. Today 3 years on our missionary still disciples the Koranic teacher who now visits the mosques telling people Jesus is so much more than a prophet.
May this Easter see Jesus telling more people who he is. May the Church preach powerful messages of revelation!

Sent
Acts 7:12
“When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.”

Joseph in Egypt had been stockpiling food so that when the famine hit, the nation would be okay. God had promoted Joseph through the ranks of Egypt’s government even though he had begun in a well his brothers had thrown him down.
Not Jacob was sending Joseph’s brothers to Egypt in search of food.

May this Easter weekend see our churches full of hungry people who are searching for God. Jesus satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. May they hear that the Church has something that they need. May they hear and come.

As Jacob sent his sons so God the Father sent His Son into the world. He is the sent One. All that He is consumed with is being sent. As He lives in us we connect with this sent experience. We hold to a belief that we have a purpose. There is a reason for our existence. It is to go. Even into places of a wilderness, like Egypt.
And as we go we find He is already there. He is waiting for us on mission.

Famine
Thursday
Acts 7: 11

“Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food.”

1845-1853 Great Famine in Ireland, 1.5 million dead.
1907 Chinese famine, 25 million dead.
1921 Famine in Russia, 5 million dead.
1932-1933 Great famine in China, 43 million dead.
1943 Famine in Bengal, 7 million dead.
1945 Famine in Vietnam, 2 million dead.
1994-1998 Famine in North Korea, 3 million dead.

In all of these famines and there are so many more to speak of there are clear similarities:

1. Adverse conditions and circumstances fuelled the famine.
eg war, poor communication, corruption.
2. Ideology: beliefs and opinions that have slowed down aid, the liaises-faire approach preventing intervention from governments.
3. Apathy: political and social.
4. Religious belief that it was God’s punishment.

There is another famine going on today. There is a famine for food, spiritual food. We see it all around us. Empty lives devoid of the truth of God’s Word. Churches that are empty of people and empty of life. You may not belong to one of these but you know they exist.
We have become experts at pointing fingers at the myriad of sins that are related to immoral behaviour and not at the areas that actually are equally as important to God?
We scorn the fornicator and the drunkard but not the person whose heart is full of greed and scorn.
Why is there famine?
Read the 4 reasons again, they apply to the spiritual famine.
Let me put them in another way:
1. The divisions of man
2. The opinions of man
3. The apathy of man
4. The judgment of man

The invitation this Easter is to become a living sacrifice. There is room on the cross for you. Nailed, stripped of all dignity, at the end of it all, where we hand over our lives to Him, into your hands I commit my spirit. We need to be crucified with Christ. We need the famine to kill our flesh so that our spirit can live on. May there be such sacrifice this Easter.

Wisdom
Acts 7:10
“and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.”

The Old Testament word for wisdom means sound judgement, discernment and the ability to see things in a right perspective.
The New Testament word for wisdom means the insight into deep things, an understanding, a spiritual intelligence and a full understanding.

God rescued Joseph from all his troubles by giving him wisdom to know what to do in his situation.

“Wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.” Prov 8:11

We often think it is God’s job to rescue us by simply lifting us out of the situation. That’s how we first came to know Him. He as redeemer rescued us.

This Good Friday we will worship the One who went to the cross and sacrificed his life and in doing so, saved us. But we also know the Apostle Paul tells us to work out our salvation. Salvation is a gift which needs working through into our lives. What I’m trying to say is that without wisdom there is no working through, there is no development of character, there is no maturity. All we are left with is an immature cry calling for our rescue.

You may be in difficult situations. You may be in a prison of some sort today. The temptation is to focus solely on the prison doors opening. Instead ask for wisdom to know what to do, how to live in such a situation. He will give you the ideas, the keys, the ability to make decisions to even gain the goodwill of the Pharaohs of your life. Ask Him today do such wisdom.

God is with me
Acts 7:9
“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him”

Stephen is continuing in his defence of himself that he is not blaspheming Moses and the law by walking through the history of Israel reliving key moments.

What enables a man when he is sold as a slave by his own brothers?
What enabled Jesus to walk through his Holy Week towards the cross?
What will enable you today and tomorrow, whatever you are facing?
It is this simple but profound truth: God is with you!

It matters not the circumstance. Joseph went from the palace to the prison, but God was with him.

If God is with you then there must be the realisation that He will not be a silent partner. He is going to get involved in whatever is happening. He may choose not to take you out of the difficulty but work through you within it. The circumstances may or may not change. But what is important is what you become though the circumstance.

Walk through your day today with this truth in your mind.
And if God is for me ……..

The cut.
Acts 7: 8
“Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.”

We all know what circumcision is. The covenant of circumcision was simply the outward symbol of an inward truth that Abraham and his descendants would be God’s people and He will be their God.

But it wasn’t long before the prophets and then the apostles were realising that the outward symbol was not enough. Today the outward sign of belonging to God maybe as some think, water baptism. Or perhaps other things like the Lord’s Supper. Do these or other things indicate a person belongs to God? It’s not enough of course. Yesterday in church there will have been people sitting in the same seat that they have sat in for years with the same face and the same behaviour. They have been baptised and they take communion faithfully, they have the badge of belonging but do they belong?
Moses called for people to circumcise their hearts. Jeremiah called for people to circumcise their hearts before the Lord. Paul would later say that circumcision is one done by the Spirit.

As we enter this Holy Week may our hearts be cut. May we be broken. Like Mary breaking the alabaster jar. Let us come to the feet of Jesus and recommit ourselves, break our lives, give the Lord the centre of our being, our heart, mind, will. It will hurt us, any cut does.

The Promise
Acts 7:7
“But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterwards they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'”

1. The promise of God is to step into your situation.
2. The promise of God is to stop the hand of the enemy against you.
3. The promise of God is to set you free.
4. The promise of God is for you to do what the previous generation could not do.
5. The promise of God is to bring you closer to Him, into the place of worship.
Which promise are you holding on to today?

The Living years
Acts 7:6
“God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years.”

God is willing to see 4 generations go by before His promise is fulfilled. He is not in a hurry. He can and He does wait.
400 years of listening to people groan under the weight of oppression. 400 years of injustice and maltreatment. There is no mission to save or to alleviate the suffering. What about the children, the poor, the starving? Where is the mercy?
We all love the bigger picture so long as we are not effected by it. We want to be the centre of the picture. We want to be what the picture is all about. We don’t want to be part of a story, we want to be the story. Well, we are not. We are part of HIS story. Sometimes we are placed into situations that are not our destiny, it is not where we were created to be, we are strangers, aliens. This is not our home. This can be a place of suffering but we don’t belong here. We can spend all our lives under the oppression of an enemy and know no freedom from it. Why would God allow this? Because HIStory doesn’t revolve around you. You are part of something bigger.
Can you imagine in eternity meeting someone who lived during this verse 6? What would you say to them? How did you survive? How did you hold on? Did you feel God with you during this time?
These kind of questions can be asked today of the millions of people who are living under the presence of the enemy right now. Their lives are not purposeless, without meaning. It may well feel like that but someone has to tell them to hold on, this is not their country. This is not what they were created for. These are not the living years but life will indeed come to them one day. God knows about this day.