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The Book of Acts
Our current series is in the Book of Acts, as we see how God’s Spirit changes the lives of Jesus’ followers and begins to change the world, too. May we too be inspired afresh in our generation!
Saturday 7th September – Acts 6:8-15 ‘In Jesus’ footsteps’
A long time ago, when I worked in the marketing industry, one of my clients asked me to lie publicly on their behalf. We were producing a research report in support of a controversial planning application: 9 out of 10 results were very positive, one was ambiguous – the one I was asked to remove. I refused, which caused 48 hours of very difficult negotiations with our client.
Eventually the report was released in its entirety, and went straight onto the front page of the local press – at which point I was immediately reported to the Market Research Society by the group opposing the planning bid for breach of professional standards. It was a crude tactic to devalue the impact of our research, but since I had released the report in full, it backfired. The case was dismissed, at which point the developer which had commissioned the research splashed our success over the front pages of the local news. The bid was eventually approved, and the development built.
The irony in all this is that, had I succumbed to our client’s pressure to lie, the smear tactic would in fact have worked, I would have been fired and the research would have been worthless. The developer’s reputation would have been severely undermined and quite possibly the new development would have been denied. Doing the right thing brought me a significant amount of trouble – but ultimately also blessing.
I can’t pretend to have suffered the sort of extreme opposition that the early church faced – only isolated examples of what you might call ‘low-level pressure’, like the one I refer to above. The discomfort I felt for taking a stand for my faith gives me only the merest insight into what inspirational characters like Stephen must have lived with. But it’s striking how Stephen’s predicament mirrors Jesus’ own so closely just a year or two beforehand: a backdrop of great miracles (v8), jealousy from the religious establishment (v9), false witnesses (v13), including a very specific one about the future of the temple which is very close to the one also quoted by the gospel writers (e.g. Matthew 26:61).
Stephen’s story is most definitely Christlike, and a sobering reminder that, throughout the ages, some are called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus in a very literal way. Today’s passage is a great encouragement for us to pray for all those who face similar troubles around the world: if you feel drawn to seek specific examples, organisations like Open Doors and Barnabas Fund will give you plenty of situations to pray into.
For us, too, we may not be called to pay the ultimate price like Stephen. But there will be occasional challenges for most of us – like mine above – where we taste something of what means to take up a cross. May God grant us grace in those times, and may we too find joy and peace in knowing that Christ is with us especially in those times, and his grace is always sufficient, for his power is made perfect in our weakness.
Friday 6th September – Acts 6:1-7 ‘Practical solutions’
A man is walking on a cliff top when a sudden gust of wind blows him over the edge. In a moment he is left clinging by his fingernails to the last remaining ledge between himself and a 100-ft drop onto the rocks below. A devout Christian, he begins to pray fervently, seeking the Lord’s rescue. A minute later a couple walking along the same path hear his cries and lean down to offer him assistance. ‘It’s OK,’ the man says, ‘the Lord will save me.’
Barely has he heard their footsteps departing when a fisherman calls from the sea, offering assistance. Again, the man refuses: ‘The Lord will save me.’ As his fingers begin to slip, a search-and-rescue helicopter hovers ahead and a harness begins to descend. But the man shouts up, his voice by-now fading to gasps: ‘Don’t worry, the Lord will save me.’
Eventually his fingers slip… and when he meets the Lord in heaven a little while later, he shouts angrily: ‘Why didn’t you save me?’ ‘Well,’ says the Lord, ‘I sent you a couple, a boat and a helicopter – what more did you want?’
We can sometimes over-spiritualise the journey of faith. Yes, we believe in the life-changing power of God; we believe in answers to prayer, the gifts of the Spirit and ‘divine appointments’ – those moments when God seems to intervene in very direct ways in our lives. But God also gives us practical skills, and the capacity to organise ourselves. We don’t put our trust in them, only God – but they can be a great blessing nonetheless. Sometimes, it’s the way God works in a situation.
In today’s passage, the church faces a very practical dilemma. The food distribution programme is failing, and people are getting resentful. How are the apostles going to fix it? Do they preach on the value of fasting, do they counsel the grumbling groups to show patience and forgiveness, do they pray for the gripes to miraculously disappear? Not a bit of it: they come up with a very pragmatic solution. They find a new team of appropriately gifted leaders to run the welfare programme, while they continue to preach and pray.
But let’s note: it’s still a spiritual solution: they take counsel together (v2), they make spiritual maturity a requirement for the job (v3), and no doubt the time freed up for prayer (v4) was invested at least partly in making the right appointments.
Our God is the God of the whole of life. There is no ultimate divide between sacred and secular, practical and spiritual – it’s all God’s. Let’s take heart today that God is interested in the practical details of our lives, and values the practical gifts he’s given us. Yes, we soak everything in prayer – but then we act, offering real solutions which bring real hope to a real and hurting world.
Thursday 5th September – Acts 5:41-42 ‘Counted worthy’
In the summer of 2021, my daughter finished her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Expedition. It had been delayed numerous times by the pandemic, and eventually she was spared having to travel to Snowdonia and camp out in (probably) heavy rain. Nevertheless, the days were arduous – up to 17 miles each day hiking, carrying a 20lb rucksack on your sodden back. Her ankles were very sore and swollen, so the last couple of days were more of a hobble than a walk.
But, she did it! And we were very proud of her. She hasn’t yet been able to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her award – but we live in hope!
‘Counted worthy….’ – it’s a striking phrase, isn’t it? Our daughter went through significant pain and challenge to be counted worthy of her gold award. No doubt as you look back on your own life, you’ll think of some challenge or goal where you too made a significant effort to be counted worthy – a qualification you completed, a new skill you mastered, a promotion you worked hard for, perhaps a competition you succeeded in. And you were counted worthy….
Most of us are wired to enjoy challenges, and the rewards that come with them – even if it’s just personal satisfaction. And pretty much all of us like the feeling of praise or affirmation from our peers. To be counted worthy is, we think on the whole, a thoroughly good thing.
And yet, here in today’s passage, we see the opposite. The apostles rejoice because they too had been counted worthy – but to what end? ‘Worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name (of Jesus).’ It’s an extraordinary, upside-down, topsy-turvy view of the world. Most of us fear disgrace, or punishment. These early Christians delighted in it. What’s going on?
The answer can only be found in where they seek their affirmation – or rather, from whom. They didn’t care what people thought of them, only God. For them, they could endure any sort of human negativity, as long as they were confident of their Lord’s approval.
Many of us are fortunate that we don’t have to choose between human approval and God’s. But we can take inspiration from the example of these extraordinary early Christians to recommit ourselves to live our lives for The Audience of One this day and this season. For that is more precious than any (even gold!) award.
Wednesday 4th September – Acts 5:33-40 ‘By its fruit….’
Today’s passage revolves around this million-dollar question: how can we judge if something is of God, or not? This is the central dilemma which often faces us – just as it did the religious leaders questioning Peter and John. Instinctively they don’t like this dynamic new group – they feel threatened, jealous. They’re all for fire and brimstone, shock and awe, threats and repression.
And then a voice of reason intervenes. Gamaliel – who we later learn was St Paul’s teacher – stands up and effectively says: it’s too early to judge whether this is of God, or not. Time will tell: if it isn’t, it won’t last. If it is, we won’t be able to stop it, because God is blessing it.
In effect it echoes exactly Jesus’ own teaching on the same question – how do we recognise the value of something? By its fruit. Look at the long-term outcomes – are they good ones? Are lives being changed, people helped, virtues growing, prayers answered, newcomers not just joining but flourishing, communities changing – in other words, are there real positive outcomes, good consequences?
As an aside, this is one of the reasons it can be difficult to answer this most vital of questions. It’s easy to get caught up by the appearance of success, or short-term flourishing. Fruit takes time to grow – one of the reasons Jesus’ advice is so profound.
And although we may not suffer the sort of opposition the early church did – for which we are very thankful – it’s a great question to apply to our lives as well. What is really bearing fruit? And take heart, there will be something! Probably several things.
Change is slow – always slower than we’d like. But as we look back, we can usually see the hand of God at work –and often others can see the change better than we can. If you know someone to ask – ask them. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what they say.
So let’s be encouraged by this great bit of practical wisdom., modelled by old Gamaliel – and let’s give thanks today for the fruit God has matured in our lives, and the lives of people around us.
Tuesday 3rd September – Acts 5:25-32 ‘Wood for the trees’
It’s easy to lose perspective – especially in situations of dispute or conflict. Many years ago, we attended a weekend away for our church group in a remote location in Herefordshire. The house was set in lovely countryside, with one village nearby, and another down the road. As we went out for a walk on Saturday afternoon to explore the area, we were advised that the two villages in question hadn’t fraternised for decades. No-one could even remember why they fallen out in the first place! It was a beautiful part of the world – but under the surface, there was darkness.
Such stories like this abound. Sadly, even in families this is true. Sometimes the source of the fall-out is clear and the blame obvious – at other times, we find ourselves clinging on to a sense of right which, were we to see it in others, we would challenge them to justify.
In today’s passage, the authorities are getting increasingly angry at the success of the new ‘Jesus’ movement. In fact, they are downright jealous, as v17 yesterday made clear. So once again the apostles are arrested and called to account (vv26-27). And I think it’s significant to note what the authorities’ principal beef is: ‘You are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.’ (v28)
It’s a classic case of failing to see the wood for the trees. Never mind the incredible good this group was doing: the people being cared for, and healed, and given new hope and life and purpose. Never mind the power of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous signs which accompany them. Never mind the complete absence of violence or menace associated with this pacifist sect. What they’re bothered about is incurring some sort of blame, with an underlying current of envy at this group’s popularity.
And whilst it’s true that the apostles are uncompromising as to who made sure Jesus was killed (3:14-15, 4:10, and here v30), the authorities have been blinded by their need to win, to be right, to cling on to power. They’re missing all the positives: the promise of new life, the gift of the Spirit, the renewal of the nation’s life implicit in the teachings of this dynamic new movement.
It’s an object lesson for us, too, of the dangers of letting either blame avoidance or a need to be right cloud our judgement and stain our lives. Sometimes we need to step back and see the wood for the trees. To see those we fall out with as God sees them. To see what God is doing in a given situation. Or just to acknowledge that we might have been wrong about something.
It’s never easy, but it is the path of grace and life. My prayer is that we can all retain an open heart and open mind, that we might never miss what God is up to, nor allow conflicts to endure longer than they have to.
Lord God, grant me an open heart and an open mind. Give me the courage to admit where I’m wrong, the grace to restore relationships in conflict, and the eyes to see what you’re doing in me, and in others. In the name of Jesus, the author of life and forgiveness, the maker of all things new. Amen.
Monday 2nd September – Acts 5:17-24 ‘At a loss’
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be very familiar with the experience of going to some room in the house to retrieve a particular object – and finding to your bemusement that the item isn’t there. ‘I’m sure I put it there,’ I suspect you’ll say to yourself. ‘Where can it possibly be?’
I had that very experience recently with the special ink we use for weddings: I went to the drawer where I keep it, and…. 40 minutes later, after searching every other place where it might conceivably be, I went back to the original drawer in desperation – and there it was, hiding in a corner I hadn’t searched properly. Welcome to my world.
Well, if you’ve had this kind of experience, imagine what it was like for the prison officers in today’s passage: heading over to the prison, as instructed by the authorities, to the place where the apostles were being ‘kept’ – and, lo and behold, they weren’t there! Never mind a missing household object… To misquote Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, if losing one apostle would be unfortunate, and two looks like carelessness – what does losing twelve apostles look like?
No wonder the authorities were ‘at a loss’ (v24). It was a loss they would have to get used to: this is the first of three such heavenly prison breaks over the following chapters. And it reminds us that our God, who created the laws of nature, occasionally overrides them at his will. With good reason, in this case: the church is very new and very fragile, despite its explosive growth. Arguably, the future of the new community which Christ’s work has brought about is at stake.
This kind of situation needs a miracle – and it certainly gets one! But what is most striking about this passage is not the miracle, but the obedience of the apostles. They go straight back to the location which got them in trouble in the first place. They don’t even hesitate; as soon as it gets light (v21), they are back in the temple courts proclaiming the good news.
And this good news is about ‘this new life’ (v20). And that message remains as true for us today as it was then. God is about life, and we can share this life, thanks to Jesus. If you find yourself dealing with disappointment or failure today, let’s take heart that our God is still the same, yesterday, today and forever – and this wonderful, amazing God has come to give us life to the full. A fullness which is not ultimately dependent on our circumstances, but on his grace, love and power.
May that life be ours today – and may it give us hope, even in trying times. Amen.
Saturday 31st August – Acts 5:12-16 ‘Open heaven’
After the scandal of Ananias and Sapphira, what would happen next? That was the big question that must have been playing on the minds and the lips of both the inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as the fledgling Church. What I think is significant about this short but dynamic passage is firstly what it does say, and secondly what it doesn’t. Allow me to explain…
The most striking thing about the start of this passage is where the apostles chose to lead their ongoing meetings: in Solomon’s Colonnade, the exact place where they had gathered after the lame man had been healed and the very place from which they had got in trouble with the authorities! They were absolutely true to the word they had spoken to the religious authorities: ‘Should we listen to you, or to God?’ (paraphrase of 4:19) Indeed, they had also prayed for boldness, and it seems this boldness was there in abundance (4:29).
Similarly, their prayer for more signs and wonders (4:30) was being wonderfully answered – indeed their reputation for miracle-working was such that people even believed in the power of Peter’s shadow (v15)! And this is where what the passage doesn’t say is helpful too. Many cults and sects have started when a gifted leader starts to believe their own hype, as crowds of followers ascribe special status to them. Power corrupts, and sadly the history of the church has seen it happen numerous times.
It could have happened to Peter – imagine people wanting even to experience your shadow – but it didn’t. There is no sense in this passage or what comes next that Peter’s ego is inflated, or that he changes his determination to offer his gifts for the Lord with humility and a servant heart. Perhaps the greatest miracle in this passage, among all the healings, is the one in Peter’s heart. He stayed true, he stayed surrendered, he stayed humble. And as a result, ‘more… believed in the Lord’ and ‘all of them were healed’.
It’s wonderful to be used by God, to be fruitful. But let’s all pray for grace to have a heart like Peter: bold, humble, giving God the glory.
Friday 30th August – Acts 4:36-5:11 ‘But to God’
This is not a passage many of us enjoy reading! Reflecting on it today, we too might feel, as the rest of the church did, ‘great fear… about these events.’ (v11)
And it is certainly a difficult passage to get our head around. The judgement seems extremely harsh, perhaps something we’d be more likely to read in the books of Judges or Samuel than in the New Testament. We have to remember that at this very early stage of the church’s life, its reputation was at stake. It was still a tiny, fragile community, its leaders were already being held up to close scrutiny (and overt persecution begins later in this chapter), and they were also expecting the return of Jesus within their generation. The timescales on which they were operating in order to prepare the church for Christ’s return were a matter of years or decades at most, not millennia.
This backdrop created a dramatic urgency for absolute integrity. Think today of the howls of hypocritical outrage from the press whenever any person or organisation with a reputation for goodness gets caught doing something less than upright – and multiply the stakes by ten for a community awaiting the last day and the restoration of all things.
The key phrase here – and the simple takeout for us now – is this: what matters is what God thinks of anything we do. Whilst we might receive praise or judgement from other humans, the only audience we do things for is The Audience of One – the Lord.
This cuts both ways: our good deeds might be praised by others, but it is only God’s opinion that really matters. Hence beginning our reading to include Barnabas’ gift at the end of chapter 4. This is a deliberate comparison in the text which is lost by a chapter division. Barnabas is one of the great characters of the bible, and someone held in very high regard by human society. Even the apostles decided that he needed a name which befitted his wonderful character: he was no longer just Joseph, but ‘son of encouragement’, which is the meaning of the name Barnabas.
But although this act of great generosity is such that it gets a specific mention in scripture, we know from the other stories about Barnabas that he’s not really interested in human praise, only to be right before God. Barnabas lives for the Audience of One, whether that gets him plaudits (as here) or criticism (15:36-40).
In the same way, the problem for Ananias and Sapphira was not that they let the church down, but they lied to God. The one opinion which really mattered was God’s – and it is this that led to their downfall.
As we offer our lives to God today, may he grant us all grace to live more and more for The Audience of One – and may he also grant us confidence in his love and mercy towards flawed and broken people like us. There but for the grace of God… and thankfully, the grace of God is very much alive and well for us today.
Thursday 29th August – Acts 4:32-37 ‘One in heart and mind’
‘The night has passed, and the day lies open before us: let us pray with one heart and mind…’
So begins one of the lovely opening prayers in the Church of England’s Daily Prayer. Its inspiration comes from today’s passage, which starts with the striking description of the early church: ‘All the believers were one in heart and mind.’
It’s a wonderful image – but what does it mean? We talk a lot about the unity of the church, and how important that is: but this seems to take ‘unity’ to a whole new level! These early chapters of Acts provide a good definition of what a church which is truly ‘one’ looks like. It involves deep friendship and regular meeting together, a love of (and commitment to) growing in wisdom and prayer, a common vision and mutual support in achieving that vision – and crucially, the capacity to meet each other’s practical needs. What is interesting is that the main example of what it means to be ‘one in heart and mind’ is the very down-to-earth financial support that was provided for any who had need (verses 33-35).
In these days long before the welfare state, the only safety net people had – apart from their immediate family – was the generosity of others. The early church provides an inspiring model of what a heart touched by the generous love of Christ, and a mind able to make wise choices as to how to meet others’ needs, looks like. In doing so, they fulfilled one of God’s original desires for his people, given in the law: ‘There need be no poor people among you’ (Deuteronomy 15:4) – something our author St Luke makes clear in verse 34.
Nowadays most commentators describe the life of the early church as an ‘ideal community’, a utopian society which couldn’t last long in its original state, and we must admit of some truth in that. But we should beware getting too comfortable with the idea that this kind of radical community is ‘just not for now’. It remains a prophetic vision to lift our eyes to a greater horizon, and our hearts to a higher love. My prayer for myself is that I would remain open to hear its voice – perhaps that is a prayer you can pray, too. And can I also offer this wonderful follow-on prayer to the invitation which began our reflection today:
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence, O God, set our hearts on fire with love for you, now and forever. Amen.
Wednesday 28th August – Acts 4:23-31 ‘Stretch out your hand’
‘Stretch out your hand.’ There’s a phrase guaranteed to send a shiver down the spines of those of us old enough remember corporal punishment at school. (I am… just!) Those fateful words were usually the prelude to sharp pain a matter of seconds later, as the cane/strap/palm swung down.
But today is a chance to redeem this phrase: there’s a noble background to this phrase in the bible, because – despite the modern connotations of punishment associated with it – in the bible this phrase is used to signify the activity of God. Moses is told to stretch out his hand by the Red Sea, and as he did so, the waters parted (Exodus 14:16). Jesus tells the man in the synagogue to stretch out his hand (Mark 3:5), and as he does so, it is healed.
And here in this passage the disciples ask God to stretch out a divine hand, in order that they might see great miracles and wonders performed. Or rather, we might say that these disciples were asking that every time they stretched out a human hand in the name of Jesus, God’s divine hand anointed and empowered their step of faith to do something wonderful.
It’s a remarkable prayer, not least because it is made in the context of the onset of persecution. Peter and John have been briefly imprisoned, and then sternly warned not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Their response: to pray fervently to do so even more! And with more miracles, too.
It’s hard not to be inspired by such faith. But there’s an encouragement here for us, too: a reminder than whenever we stretch out a hand to do something in Jesus’ name, we can pray for God to bless and empower it. It might be something spectacular, but it might also be a simple act of love. Anything that Jesus can put his name to, God can bless.
And that is (part of) the wonder of what it means to follow Jesus. Nothing is wasted: even a cup of cold water offered in Jesus’ name has its reward (Mark 9:41).
So, let’s pray for grace to stretch out a hand in some way today – that God too might stretch out his hand to bless it.
Tuesday 27th August – Acts 4:13-22 ‘They’d been with Jesus’
Recently I’ve been reading ‘Conspiracy of the Insignificant’, the autobiography of Patrick Regan, the founder of a Christian organisation called XLP, which has done brilliant work sharing and showing the love of Christ in inner-city schools and among the toughest estates in London. It wasn’t the kind of area where Patrick grew up, but he felt called to it at a young age. Visiting Cardboard City in Waterloo as a 16-year old, he writes:
‘It was there that my bubble burst for good and my heart broke. I returned to the church hall we were staying in that night and prayed a prayer that changed my life. As I tossed and turned on my air bed, tears ran down my face and my heart was overwhelmed with the things I’d seen… There was no Hallelujah Chorus, but there on the church floor I was suddenly intensely aware that all these people were made in the image of God and that as a Christian I had to respond in some way.’
And so began decades of faithful service on one of God’s frontlines: a journey which not only took Patrick into some of the most challenging areas of this country but also to places of great hurt and poverty overseas.
We worship an extraordinary Saviour. One of my prayers is that I’ll never lose sight of just how amazing Jesus is, that my heart would continue to be captivated by him. As yesterday’s passage concluded, ‘There is no other name…’
But as we marvel at Jesus’ saving love, today we can also remember that this amazing Saviour also empowers ordinary people to do extraordinary things. People like Patrick Regan. And people like Peter and John – ‘unschooled, ordinary men’ (v13). These are not people who were always destined for greatness; they had normal upbringings in ordinary places. But something made the difference. Or rather, we should say, Someone. The rest of v13 gives it away: ‘they took note that these men had been with Jesus.’
Being with Jesus makes the difference. Three years of personal friendship and investment from their Lord had turned Peter and John into bold evangelists, people with purpose and authority. Still flawed, still human: but ordinary people now able – through Christ’s power – to do extraordinary things.
There is nothing like being with Jesus. And because it’s not about us and our abilities, our capacities, our talents, Peter’s and John’s and Patrick’s stories can be ours too. We too can be ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We may not have books written about us, but all of us are privileged to witness little, ordinary, everyday miracles. The longer I go on in pastoral ministry, the more convinced I am that God gifts so many people to be part of these ‘ordinary, everyday miracles.’ No-one is excluded, because Jesus is the same Lord for each of us.
Let’s be uplifted by Peter and John, by what God can do in ordinary people like you and me. And let’s pray with St. Richard of Chichester: ‘Dear Lord, of you three things I pray – to know you more clearly, to love you more dearly, and to follow you more nearly, this day and every day. Amen.’
Monday 26th August – Acts 4:5-12 ‘Called to account’
In 361 AD the Roman Emperor Julian, a fierce opponent and persecutor of the church, wrote a tract regretting the progress of Christianity because it pulled people away from the Roman gods. In this tract he wrote: ‘Atheism [i.e. the Christian faith!] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.’ (italics my own)
It might seem remarkable that one of the reasons this emperor hated Christians so much was his sense of outrage that their care for others was so great that it extended to those of another religion. But it is a sobering reminder that not everyone likes followers of Jesus doing good!
That said, what we also see in today’s passage is the reality that showing care and kindness for others has been at the heart of our faith from the beginning. God is self-giving love, and this God calls us to love others in the same way. So, Peter and John bless this man with prayer and kindness, and now find themselves hauled before the authorities to explain themselves. And Peter is not slow to point out the irony of what is going on here: ‘we are being called to account for an act of kindness…’ (v7)
Whilst this is certainly unusual, it reinforces the observation we made yesterday that radical love unsettles corrupt human power, because it exposes the myths of their authority. Peter understands that this is the real reason: ‘know this…. it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth…. that this man stands before you healed.’ (v10)
In the grand scheme of things, if we are to get into trouble for anything, much better that it’s for showing great kindness than great hatred or indifference. And the Jesus in whose name this mighty miracle happened is the same Jesus who empowers our lives today, who still gives his name to the acts of love and faith which we offer.
Thankfully, few of us face the sort of opposition Peter and John did. But if you do: know that God is with you, and will bless your integrity, just as he has always done. Psalm 37 reminds us: ‘Do not fret because of the ungodly… for like the grass they will soon wither…. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ (vv1,2,4) In good times and bad, may that last sentence be our hope and prayer – God, grant me grace to delight in you and you alone, shape my heart to desire what you desire. Amen!
Saturday 24th August – Acts 4:1-4 ‘A dangerous freedom’
‘Like a mighty tortoise moves the church of God.’ This parody of a famous old hymn is one that a friend of mine told me many years ago. He’s a Christian – and there’s no harm in not taking ourselves too seriously! – but the sentiment is shared by many both within and outside the church: the church is seen as something very conservative, safe, unlikely to take risks or challenge the status quo. While other radical forces might shape society, the church moves relentlessly forward… but oh so slowly and carefully.
It’s funny that this is how many in the West see the church, when in many other cultures, the perception of our faith is totally different: the church is seen as dangerously subversive. This has been true throughout history, and right from the beginning, too. To preach the Lordship of Jesus is an implicit challenge both to other worldviews, and also to human power which likes to believe its own hype. The ‘Powers That Be’ are unsettled by those who worship a different boss, or insist that above this world sits an even bigger Boss than them, to whom one day they will give an account.
It’s funny when you think about it, that a group of people committed to peaceful living, loving their neighbour, serving the disadvantaged, giving generously and obeying the general law of the land wherever it doesn’t contradict the will of God, should be seen as such a threat. 99% of the time we are model citizens.
But the other 1% matters. The fact that ultimately our first loyalty is to the Lord Jesus is what makes human authorities uncomfortable. And so, in today’s passage, we see the first sign of trouble for the fledgling church, the first time that the authorities start to oppose what’s going on. Until now, the new community has been only a blessing – but as it grows to several thousand (v4), it starts to be seen as a threat. We get this marvellously ironic sentence in v2: The religious authorities ‘were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people.’ Not inciting them, or bullying them, or oppressing them – just enlarging their minds and hearts!
Of course, the real issue is the second part of the verse: ‘proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.’ The troublesome rabbi they had just got rid of a few months previously is the last name they wanted to hear being spoken of openly in the heartland of their faith.
Perhaps you’ve come across this type of opposition personally: at work, or within your family. If you haven’t, give thanks for the peace and freedom most of us still enjoy. But let’s pray today for all our fellow brothers and sisters for whom this type of opposition is a daily reality – both in this country and around the world. Many do so in secret, some openly – and all with great courage. In the end, their conviction that resurrection life is found in Jesus outweighs every cost. May their courage inspire us, and, like the early church, may it also bear great fruit for the kingdom of God.
Friday 23rd August – Acts 3:24-26 ‘Heirs of the covenant’
Since we live just a few miles from Bletchley Park, one of the features of our community is that over the years, a number of our parishioners and church members worked there during the war. Thousands were billeted nearby, and some of them stayed and made their permanent homes here after 1945. Sadly, the last of our church members who worked in one of the famous huts passed away a few years ago – and she is much missed.
In the time that I knew her, although she had so many extraordinary experiences to recount, she was always very reluctant to speak about her work during the war – even 60+ years later, she only ever mentioned it a few times, and rarely gave specific details. Her reason was very clear: ‘I took an oath, and I can’t break it.’ Even though others had begun to talk once the statutory 30 years had passed, for this lady her oath was lifelong, permanent.
How long are we expected to keep a promise? It’s a good question, and I imagine most of you would answer: ‘It depends on the promise.’ In today’s passage we look at perhaps the greatest of all promises ever made: one made by God to an obscure Mesopotamian almost 4,000 years ago. The promise was this: ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ Quoted in v25, the original promise goes all the way back to Genesis, the first book of the bible. God promised Abraham that one of his descendants would be the means to bless the whole world.
In a sense, the rest of the bible represents the outworking or fulfilment of that promise. And it took a long time coming – at least by our human calculations. There were many up and downs, pitfalls and sidetracks along the way. Viewed through human lenses, it almost didn’t get going at all – Abraham couldn’t have children, and the long-awaited heir took 25 years. The second generation fought and the third generation was exiled to another country in a time of famine. Hundreds of years later, the genocidal ruler of that nation tried to wipe out the heirs of the covenant – unsuccessfully. Then the heirs themselves repeatedly failed to trust the God who made that promise, eventually split into two and were again exiled. Various leaders had threatened to be the ‘person of blessing’ promised to Abraham, but had ultimately come up short. By the time of this sermon, nearly 2,000 years later, it would be fair to ask: when would the promise be fulfilled?
Peter’s answer is remarkable: ‘the time is now! We have now seen the fulfilment of those promises. However long it’s taken, God’s covenant can’t be broken, because God never breaks his promises. You are still heirs of that promise: and the servant has now come – his name is Jesus.’
With the passage of time, it’s easy to lose the force of how amazing this is. Never mind ’30 years of hurt’ (to quote the famous song), how about 2,000 years of waiting? But God is good, and faithful. As Peter reminded the crowds in our reflection two days ago, God is ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’. It’s the same God, keeping the same promise – faithful then and now.
We too inherit this same blessing – since we are part of ‘all peoples’ that the promise was for. This faithful God is our God. Bring to him today whatever your needs are, and trust in his faithfulness for you – for you too are an heir of this amazing covenant.
Thursday 22nd August – Acts 3:17-23 ‘Times of refreshing’
As a student, I spent two of my long summer vacations working as a brickie’s mate. It was hard graft, albeit in glorious weather. And when I got home, my routine was usually the same: a long soak in the bath to wash off the grime and soothe the aching muscles, followed by a couple of hours with my feet up to rest.
It’s a familiar routine for many of us in the evenings – as we prepare for bed, we wash and then rest. It’s something we adopt as children (or for our children) – ‘bath and bed’ – and it remains a lifelong habit. Wash, and rest.
Funnily enough, there’s echoes of it in the spiritual life too. What does it mean to come to Christ? What’s the outcome – what does it look like? As Peter talks to the crowds in today’s passage, he describes what happens for those who come to believe in the name of Jesus, who change their lives in that direction (remembering that this is the meaning of the word ‘repent’ in v19). And it’s the same pattern I’ve just described: wash and rest. This is the force of the two words Peter uses in the second part of v19.
First, our sins are ‘wiped out’ (to use the NIV translation). The word literally means to wash off or erase. Its most common usage in the language of the day was to describe how a wet sponge would rub off a mistake made by ink on a piece of papyrus. The writer would rub the papyrus and ‘wash off’ (same word) the ink from the paper before re-writing.
What a wonderful image to demonstrate how Jesus deals with our own selfishness and wrongdoing! It’s like a wet sponge is applied to our lives, literally washing off the stains of the mistakes. We are, quite literally, washed clean!
But it doesn’t stop there – God’s promise is also that we might enjoy ‘times of refreshing from the Lord’. I love that phrase: how good to know that this is God’s plan for us. Again, the word literally means rest, relief, respite or refreshment, and it reminds us that our good news is not just ‘sin management’ – it is the restoration of wholeness. God desires not just that we wash, but we also rest.
‘The rest of God’ is a theme which weaves through the whole bible. After creation God rests on the seventh day, and then institutes rest every seventh day for us, too. And ultimately, that season of rest will be perfected for eternity in heaven, where we will enjoy, forever, the rest of God. Peter even alludes to this in our passage as he promises that when Jesus returns God will ‘restore everything’ (v21).
God has called you to enjoy his rest. We may have to work hard today – or we may be fortunate enough to enjoy the warm weather – but it makes no difference. Thanks to Jesus, our hearts can be at rest: and one day, we will know that rest forever.
Wednesday 21st August – Acts 3:11-16 ‘Where there’s blame…’
Just down from where we live, on the notorious chicane which leads out of our village towards the next community, they closed the road (on the morning I wrote this reflection) for some roadworks. Almost certainly it will be to fill in the large pot holes which have appeared (again) over recent months as extra buses and lorries, alongside thousands of cars have taken their toll. We’ll certainly be glad not to have to weave the car all over the road to avoid them, but it reminds us that the real reason these potholes are attended to so promptly is the risk of being sued.
We live in a culture nowadays which likes to apportion blame. We can no longer hold up our hands and insist that ‘accidents just happen’. If something’s gone wrong, someone has to take the blame.
And whilst we now take this to extreme lengths – good for potholes, bad for insurance policies! – this attitude is nothing new. In fact, it’s as old as the serpent itself – when God confronts Adam and Eve in the garden right at the start of the bible, the newly-shamed man says ‘blame the woman’; the woman says ‘blame the serpent’.
And in today’s passage, St. Peter doesn’t pull any punches either. He is of course talking about one of his best friends, so the pain is raw, but his words have a curiously modern ring to them: ‘You handed him over… (v13); you disowned the Holy and Righteous One… (v14); you killed…’ (v15). Where there’s blame, as they say, there’s a claim.
But the claim in this case, wonderfully and miraculously, is the very one paid in full by this innocent sufferer. The very moral failings that put Jesus on the cross are also the ones that God deals with on that same cross. The point is not that Peter is targeting particular groups with causing the death of the Messiah – that was a pernicious belief of mediaeval Christendom, which caused untold suffering for the Jewish minorities who lived in those societies – but rather their story is our story.
We can read these words knowing that we all carry the same guilt as Adam and Eve, the same guilt as the Roman and Jewish authorities referred to in this passage. We too put Jesus on the cross… and yet we too can make the same claim: that in the name of Jesus we can be forgiven, set free, restored.
God was not thwarted by human wickedness. God achieved his purposes regardless, and gloriously raised Jesus from the dead. This same God raises us too – the name of Jesus brings us life. Today, give thanks that nothing you’ve done can separate you from God’s love. You are forgiven, you are clean, and your only ‘claim’ is the life-giving power of the name of the Son of God. Hallelujah!
Tuesday 20th August – Acts 3:1-10 ‘Give what you have’
Lots of us love a good Christian biography. We find stories of great people doing great acts for God inspiring: whether it’s Jackie Pullinger in the slums of Hong Kong, or Nicky Cruz working with violent gangs, or Brother Andrew smuggling bibles into the Eastern Bloc, or Corrie ten Boom risking her life to protect Jewish families during the Second World War. It’s good to remember what an awesome God we have.
And yet, if you’re anything like me, reading such stories can sometimes make us feel inadequate. We think of our own lives in comparison with these heroes of the faith, and wonder where we’ve gone wrong or missed out. Never mind that in at least two of the examples above, their calling largely came out of their own circumstances, rather than a dramatic change of direction – we can find ourselves reflecting that perhaps we somehow fell short.
But this is not how God sees it. Comparing ourselves to others is rarely a smart move in the journey of faith. Today’s wonderful story reminds us of one simple principle which we can all offer for God’s glory: give what you have.
The scene is not an unusual one. Peter and John were doing what they usually did – going to pray at the temple – and almost certainly taking their usual route there. They passed someone who they’d probably passed many times before, who made the usual request for financial assistance. This is not a unique, one-off, dramatic encounter. It’s an encounter they might have had dozens of times previously. But today they took a step of faith and applied one simple principle: they gave what they had, and trusted God for the rest.
And so when the chap asks them for money, Peter says, in effect: ‘I don’t have cash, but I’ll give you what I can, something else you don’t have – a prayer for healing in the name of Jesus.’
Today we can give thanks for this extraordinary miracle. But I also want us to note the very ordinary circumstances in which it took place. Two normal, working-class blokes making their usual journey at their usual time, passing someone they’d passed many times before, and doing one simple thing in the name of Jesus. Give what you have, and trust God for the rest.
Jesus teaches the same thing in that famous parable of the talents. He doesn’t ask everyone to deliver the same amount of impact for the kingdom – only to make the best of what they have. In the kingdom, everyone gets to play. And all God asks is that we use what we have.
So in your circumstances today – however ordinary they might seem – take heart! God is simply asking you to give what you have, and trust him for the rest. By the grace of God, extraordinary things might come of it.
Monday 19th August – Acts 2:42-47 ‘The blueprint’
Many of you know that I love playing records. There’s something about the theatre of it that’s unbeatable. Even though I have a music streaming subscription, I love to get one of my 12-inch discs of black plastic out on a regular basis. I only own one record, though, that’s worth any money. Bizarrely I bought it by accident, but it’s by a band who split a couple of years later and deleted their whole back catalogue. You can’t buy this record new anymore, only second-hand copies.
Funnily enough my copy also has a little white sticker in the top-right corner, which adds £50 to its value. The sticker is worthless in itself, but it proves that my copy is one of the original pressings, as it was only these that had this sticker. I’m glad I accidentally bought the wrong record that day!
For all that we love new things in our culture, there’s a huge amount of interest in finding originals. We love the idea of having something that’s the original version – whether it’s a first edition of a book, the first series of a classic car – or the actual original piece of art, rather than a print.
It’s true in church life, too. There are so many denominations now, so many different types of churches, we find ourselves asking – what was the original church really like? Before there were human institutions and organisations, before we owned buildings and created hierarchies of trained professionals, before we decided that this particular practice defined our particular brand of church?
And in today’s famous passage we get a glimpse of the original church. The church newly anointed by the Spirit, led by the original leaders who’d been with Jesus. And as we read these verses, we’ll see some things that remind us (thankfully) of the church we have now, and others which are more challenging.
It’s no surprise to know that they devoted themselves to study of their faith (the apostles’ teaching now being written down as the New Testament), to unity (usually translated as ‘fellowship’, but the word means one-ness), to hospitality (breaking of bread referred to the act of sharing a meal, which probably included remembering Jesus’ death but not in the formalised way we have it now) and to prayer. So far, so good: we might recognise something of our own church family – hopefully!
But we also see a church which was extraordinarily generous, where miracles were normal, where the whole community admired what it was doing and where people joined it every day. These things are unusual now – and perhaps as you read this, you might have found yourself longing, as I did, that we might see more of it!
There is no perfect church this side of heaven. Which is just as well, or I couldn’t join it. But let’s be inspired by what we read today to lift our eyes, enlarge our vision, and declare over our church, our community, our nation – come, Lord Jesus, bless your church!