Medicine Hat Joe

Week 43 Acts

Paul took a breather on his trip home so he could visit the church leaders from Ephesus one last time. It wasn’t exactly a social call.
First Paul reminded them that his basic message for all people everywhere was: the necessity of turning from sin and turning to God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus. Previously Paul had spent three years in Ephesus and likely said an awful lot of other things but the bare bones summary of it all was this: a) turn away from your sin; b) turn toward God; and c) put your faith in the Lord Jesus. The rest was detail.
Secondly Paul gave the church leaders some pretty serious advice and warnings:
…be sure that you feed and shepherd God’s church
…false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave
…some of you will (eventually) distort the truth in order to draw a following (gulp!)
Finally, Paul told the church leaders a couple of things about money:
…I have never coveted anyone’s money
…(I) worked to pay my own way
…I have been (an) example of how you can help the poor by working hard.
I reread the section. If I said out loud what Luke said Paul said it would take less than five minutes. So I guess Paul likely said more. But even this condensed version would make me think twice about leadership and ministry.

Note: quotes from Acts 20:21, 28-30, 33-35 (NLT)

Week 42 Acts

Philip left Samaria and headed out to the desert because an angel of the Lord had told him: go south down to the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza. Along that road Philip met an Ethiopian (he was the country’s royal treasurer) and the reason he was coming down that road from Jerusalem was because: he had gone to Jerusalem to worship.
Which sounds like he was a religious convert to Judaism…from Africa – however that happened.
Philip approached the chariot and walked alongside beside it. The man was travelling along reading the book of Isaiah out loud. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading.
I started reading the book of Isaiah in April and finished in early May. No one asked me if I understood what I was reading and if someone had I might have said – depending on what chapter I was reading – what the Ethiopian guy said: how can I, when there is no one to instruct me?
The African guy asked if Isaiah was talking about himself or someone else and Philip started with Isaiah and then looked at other OT passages and finally told him the man Isaiah was referring to was the resurrected Lord. And having just crossed paths with Philip that day the Ethiopian believed. And then Philip turned and headed north.
I’m left wondering what happened with the Ethiopian. Where did he end up?
It seems like an unfinished story.

Note: quotes from Acts 8:26, 27, 31 NLT

Week 42 Acts

Acts 8 features a man named Philip.
I don’t think he’s the apostle Philip. I think the Acts 8 Philip is the Philip mentioned in the Acts 6 list: Stephen Philip Procorus Nicanor Timon Parmenas & Nicolas.
Philip left Jerusalem when persecution started. He: went to Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to what he had to say because of the miracles he did. Many evil spirits were cast out…Many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed.
Out of the many Samaritans only one was named – a sorcerer-magician-black-arts guy called Simon. The people in town called him: “the Great One – the Power of God”. And Luke conceded that Simon: was very influential because of the magic he performed.
Still…as powerful as he was Simon realized he wasn’t in Philip’s class. So  he converted and was baptized.
A bit later when Simon saw townspeople receiving the Holy Spirit he offered to pay the apostles for that skill. It seems like a crass request…though maybe not for a guy who figured spiritual power – like other things – was available on the open-market.
Peter told him that his heart was wrong…his thought-processes evil…and that he was captivated by sin. That subdued Simon and he asked for prayers to be said for him.
And then just like that Simon the Magician disappeared from the bible.
So I’m left wondering what happened with Simon? Where did he end up?
It seems like an unfinished story.

Note: quotes from Acts 6:5, 8:5-7, 10-11, 21-23 (NLT)

Week 42 Acts

Stephen’s historical synopsis of the OT comes in Acts 7 (too late for me to benefit since I finished the OT seven weeks ago). But it’s a tidy condensation to look at in retrospect.
Stephen gave the account because he was on trial for his life. His opponents were a group of men from the Synagogue of the Freedmen (whatever exactly that was and whoever exactly they were) and they called Stephen to account.
Anyway 52 of chapter seven’s 60 verses are Stephen’s OT-summary. It’s a good bird’s-eye view. I recognize a lot of the events and stories.  There’s at least a dozen quotes straight from the OT and the rest is accurate reporting (as far as I can see Stephen isn’t fictionalizing).
But one thing – a subtle thing – that Stephen emphasized in his narrative was Israel’s track-record of rejecting the Lord’s representatives. Stephen doesn’t beat the Freedmen over the head with it. But – for example – he does tell about the brother’s rejection of Joseph (near the beginning). And the people’s rejection of Moses (in the middle). And Israel’s systematic persecution and murder of the prophets (near the end). Finally Stephen goes out on a very thin limb and says that his audience followed suit. They had rejected and killed the Righteous One.
Stephen’s story of the OT was a helpful review for me.
But there was more to it than what I saw at first. And what I didn’t see at first is what got Stephen killed.

Week 42 Acts

Acts two picks-up-the-pace: suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where (the apostles) were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
I figure this event registered with the apostles as a big & unexpected surprise – i.e. unexpected in how the incident actually played out in actual life. It couldn’t have been a total-total surprise since John the Baptist had publicly said: after me will come one who is more powerful than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire… So it’s not like the Holy Spirit’s fire-baptism came out of the blue (and besides the Lord had personally told the apostles the same thing as he was leaving: do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about…In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit).
So the apostles did have a theoretical expectation of what was coming. But the here-and-now practical & personal experience of the Spirit – the thundering gale-force winds & the incandescent tongue-like objects & the linguistic enhancements – those weren’t exactly anticipated.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:2-4, Matthew 3:11 (also Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33), Acts 1:4-5 (NIV)

Week 42 Acts

There’s a bit of a lull as the book begins. The Lord had miraculously left earth for the second-last time: he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
Once the Lord was gone the disciples just stood there looking up at the clouds that were already reshaping in the breeze and drifting across a Mediterranean sky. They were kind of transfixed. Immobilized: looking intently up into the sky… Until they were interrupted by two men dressed in white who told them: this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way. Then they went back into the city and waited.
One exercise they did in the meantime – along with the women who followed the Lord – was to devote themselves to prayer.
There was also a practical detail to deal with – that was to replace Judas (in a sombre note Luke said Judas had left his apostleship to: go where he belongs). The apostles used a pretty interesting and maybe unorthodox selection technique. They chose two men – Barsabbas and Matthias – who had known the Lord from the very beginning. So with two good candidates for one important position what-to-do-next? The early church drew straws: and the lot fell to Matthias.
There’s a bit of a lull as Acts begins but things pick up the pace in chapter two.

Note: quotes from Acts 1:9-11, 25-26 (NIV)

Week 41 John

Right near the end of his gospel John tells about the crucifixion.
Four soldiers crucified Jesus and then: divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said, “Let’s not tear it but throw dice to see who gets it.” The other gospel writers tell the same story but only John adds a sidebar to the OT: this fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my clothes among themselves and threw dice for my robe.”
The cross-reference in my bible points to Psalm 22. When I look there it says: they divide my clothes among themselves and throw dice for my garments. It’s a psalm that David wrote. I see other things too:
My God! Why have you forsaken me?
Everyone who sees me mocks me
My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls
All my bones are out of joint
They have pierced my hands and feet.
The whole section sounds eerily like the Lord’s crucifixion.
Whatever happened to David must have been pretty harrowing since he described it like this. And even though he wasn’t crucified and he didn’t die his experience was scarifying enough he turned it into an uncannily accurate and explicit forecast that was actualized and came true in the Lord’s dying.

Note: quotes from John 19:23-24, Psalm 22:18, 1, 7, 12, 14, 16 (NLT)

Week 41 John

The Lord said to his disciples: I have told you these things so that you won’t fall away.
It’s disturbing to think about starting with sky-high hopes of following the Lord forever then gradually dipping to lowering-hopes and eventually quitting the Lord forever. I don’t guess people plan that they’ll be temporary followers. But none of us know how things will pan out.
Anyway the Lord anticipated the potentiality of a Follower’s Devolution and said: I have told you these things so that you won’t fall away.
So…what are the these-things that he told them? I figure there’ll be some in chapter fifteen so I look there:
Remain in me, and I will remain in you
Those who remain in me…will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing
Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love
Love each other in the same way that I love you…the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends
The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don’t.
Not the easiest and most implementable list of things in the world. But it’s things like these that’ll a) help me not to fall away, and b) in the event I do stumble will keep me from free-falling forever.

Note: quotes from John 16:1 & 15:4, 5, 10, 12, 19, 26 (NLT)

Week 40 John

The blind man in chapter nine suddenly saw. And so some religious leaders began badgering the Lord…asking him to spell out in plain language who he was (did he think he was the Messiah?) The Lord didn’t answer the question. He said: I have already told you, and you don’t believe. The proof is what I do in the name of my Father. But you don’t believe me because you are not part of my flock.
There’s two pretty interesting things here. The First Thing is that the leaders want plain-language  talk but the Lord points them to the indirect language of miracles…The water-to-wine. The near-death resuscitation. The lame man walking. And now the blind man seeing. Miracles should have ratified the Lord. But they didn’t. And why they didn’t is the Second Thing.
The Lord said: you don’t believe me because you are not part of my flock.
Technically-speaking you’d think a miraculous event had power to convince. But the Lord implied that you had to get on board first to facilitate belief.
As though a guy had to trust first so he could actually believe.
Which maybe makes sense. For example I believe the universe is currently expanding because someone reliable told me it was. The confidence-trust I have was the start of my belief.
As though I come onside so things can clarify.

Note: quotes from John 10:25 & 26 (NLT)

Week 40 John

I’m impressed by how much travelling the Lord did.
I notice it here because I was tracking his movements in Luke. Up until chapter nine Luke concentrated exclusively on what the Lord was doing up-country in Galilee. Finally the Lord left for Jerusalem – and Luke spent the next ten chapters talking about that one trip. You’d get the impression from Luke that the Lord spent all of his public ministry years in Galilee and then in the end travelled to Jerusalem. But John clarifies that impression…
Right after the very first miracle it was Passover time and: Jesus went to Jerusalem.
Then a bit later: Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.
He was back in Galilee in chapter six but then John said: it was nearly time for the annual Passover celebration.
Sometime later the Lord was on the road again: it was time for the Feast of Shelters in Jerusalem.
A couple of chapter later: it was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah.
From the sound of it the Lord was very familiar with The City.
Luke was a pretty scrupulous investigator so I figure he was well aware of the Lord’s frequent road trips and he had reasons for composing his gospel the way he did. But John helps by spelling out a more detailed itinerary.

Note: quotes from John 2:13, 5:1, 6:4, 7:2, 10:22 (NLT)