Acts 6-8: Someone's Got To Do It

Public ministry, such as the ministry of the priests, has always been more attractive than serving.  This was true in the early church even after all of Jesus' teachings on being servants.  The early disciples were zealous in spreading the gospel, but not so zealous in taking care of the widows.  'We need someone to do this,' they said, 'so that we can concentrate on prayer and ministry.'  So they looked for men full of wisdom and the Spirit and chose seven to carry out the duties and responsibilities of caring for the widows.  This left the rest of the disciples free for ministry.  So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.- Acts 6:7 NIV

One of those chosen to care for the widows was Stephen.  Like many of the patriarchs, such as Joseph and Moses, or prophets, such as Daniel,  Stephen was thrust into service which became a platform for witness.  And like many of his predecessors, great wonders and miraculous signs followed his service.  Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. - Acts 6:9-10 NIV

The guy serving the widows could not be stopped.  He was not afraid of those who considered themselves righteous.  He was sure of the gospel and recounted the history of Joseph and Moses and how the people reacted to those who presented God's truth.  “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”  - Acts 7:51-53 NIV

Surrounded by their fury, Stephen saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  This made them even more furious and they rushed Stephen and stoned him to death.  Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was one of the wise, religious, Jews standing there, watching this man who took care of widows meet his death because of his beliefs.

As a result of Stephen's death, the church scattered and the gospel was spread even further because they preached the gospel wherever they went.

Acts 1-5: What is this Power?

For forty days after he was crucified and rose again, Jesus appeared to the disciples in various places. “Do not leave Jerusalem," he told them, "but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit - Acts 1:4-6(NIV)  All they wanted was to see the kingdom of Israel restored.  Instead, He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  - Acts 1:7-3

What is this power that the disciples and early church experienced after Jesus ascended into heaven, power that appeared at Pentecost that sounded like a blowing wind and filled the room with what looked like tongues of fire?  What was this power that gave Peter, the one who had denied Jesus three times, the boldness to stand up and address the crowd that gathered in Jerusalem with such boldness that three thousand accepted the message and were baptized that very day..  What was this power that enabled Peter to heal the crippled beggar?  What gave Peter and John boldness before the Sanhedrin, the ones responsible for Jesus' death?  What was the power that caused Ananias and Sapphira to fall down dead for lying to the apostles about how much money they received for the sale of some land.  What was the power that opened the prison gates for the apostles. 

It was the same power that caused men to face death boldly when thrown to the lions.  The power that enabled all the martyrs down through the centuries to go to their deaths willingly.  The power that has caused thousands of missionaries to sacrifice their lives that the gospel would be heard.  The power that has healed the deaf, blind, and lame down through the centuries.  The same power that gave Handel the "Messiah". The power that changed the slave trader who eventually wrote "Amazing Grace". 

It is the Holy Spirit, Peter told the crowd.  The Holy Spirit that Jesus promised would come  God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. - Acts 2:32-33 NIV

The power of Jesus and the resurrection was now available for all that believed.

John 18--21: What is Truth?

'What is truth?,' Pilate asks Jesus in the course of trying to determine why the Jews so badly want Jesus to die.  Try as he could, Pilate could not get Jesus to confess to anything other than the fact that he was sent from God.
   Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
  “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
   Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
  “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. - John 18:36-38 NIV

Pilate was like many of those who observed Jesus and knew there was something different about him, but who did not completely understand who he really was or who were afraid to publicly confess that they believed in him for fear of the Jews.  Pilate may not have saved Jesus from crucifixion, but he had a notice prepared and nailed above his head on the cross which read, Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.  'What I have written, I have written.' he told the Jews when they confronted him. 

Both Joseph of Arimathea, who followed Jesus only at a distance, and Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night, cared about Jesus the man enough to ask Pilate for Jesus' body in order to give him a proper Jewish burial. 

Even Thomas, one of the twelve, was slow to believe the words that Jesus had been saying all along:  that he was sent from God, that he was one with the Father, that he was sent to die, and that he would rise from the dead.   “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”, (John 20:25 NIV) he told the disciples when they said they had seen Jesus. 

All of these had seen Jesus' ministry, had witnessed his miracles, had listened to his words, but still harbored a lingering doubt that everything was true.  But then there was John, the writer of this gospel and the one who would see visions on the Isle of Pathmos years later.  John witnessed all of these things first hand, including Peter's denial and Jesus' reinstatement of Peter after the resurrection.  This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. - John 21:24 NIV

What is truth?  All the stories, all the denials, all the confessions, all the words.  They are all the truth.

John 13-17: Abiding

'Don't let your hearts be troubled,' Jesus tells his disciples.  'You believe in God, believe also in me.'  With these words, Jesus tries to explain the relationship between himself and the Father.  He tries to explain that his life has been one of abiding in the Father, that his life has not been his own, the words he has spoken, the deeds he has done, have all been orchestrated by God the father.  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? - John 14:9-10 NIV

And then he tells them a truly marvelous thing.  The same relationship that he has with the Father will be theirs.  Another Counselor will come to be with them forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you - John 14:16-17 NIV

 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:19-20

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. - John 15:10-12 NIV

The King James Version uses the word 'abide' instead of 'live' or 'remain'. 

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. - John 15:7 KJV
 
 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10 KJV
 

According to Webster's dictionary, Abide is an intransitive verb that means to remain stable or fixed in a state or to continue in a place, to sojourn. There is no separation in abiding.  Just as there was no separation between Jesus and his Father, their words and deeds were one and the same, there should be no separation between those who call themselves disciples of Jesus, their words and deeds should be one and the same as well.  Abiding is more than believing, abiding is walking together as one.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. - John 17:23 NIV

John 10-12: Ordained and Spoken by God

Jesus did nothing and said nothing that was not ordained by God the Father.  This was true when he said that he was the good shepherd, that he cared for his sheep.  And it was true also when he did not rush to Lazarus' side when he lay dying, but waited until he had been dead and buried for four days. Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ( John 11:4 NIV)  God ordained it that Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead so he could proclaim “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. (John 11:25-26 NIV).

But after all of the miracles, most of them still did not believe.  That was ordained by God as well, as spoken by the prophet, Isaiah:
 Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
 Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all. - Isaiah 53-1-6 NIV

The iniquity of us all was laid on the good shepherd, the one who cares for his sheep.  Jesus knew that all he was to suffer was ordained by his Father.  As he told them, For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.  For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”  - John 12:47-50 NIV

Jesus had the power to raise people from the dead, but nothing would deter Jesus from speaking the words of the Father and seeing the Father's plans carried out to completion.

John 8-9: The Blind will See

Although Jesus told the Pharisee's over and over again that the Father had sent him, they still did not understand.  Your testimony is not valid, they told him.  Even when he healed the man who was blind from birth, they did not understand or believe him.  They kept interrogating the blind man trying to get him to denounce Jesus, but he would not.  They they tried to trap his parents.  'We know he is out son, they told them, but how he can see or who opened his eyes, we don't know.  You'll have to ask him.'  So they asked the man who had been blind the second time to give the glory to God instead of Jesus because they knew that Jesus was a sinner, but the blind man would not take the bait.  He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” (John 9:25 NIV)

This angered the Pharisees so that they threw the blind man out of the temple.  Jesus found him and asked him if he believed in the Son of Man..
  “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
   Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
   Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
   Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
   Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
   Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. - John 9:36-41 NIV

'It s not a sin to be blind,' Jesus says.  Those who know they are blind are willing to ask for their sight.  The sin is to claim you can see when you cannot.  Jesus came to give sight to the blind.  There is nothing he can offer those who think they can see.

John 5-7: The Bread of Life

The people followed Jesus.  The crowds grew, first because of the healing miracles that he performed and later, after he fed the five thousand with only five loaves and two small fish, because of food.  After the five thousand were fed, Jesus disciples got into a boat and crossed the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.  Without the people knowing it, Jesus joined his disciples in the boat by walking to it on the water.  The people, knowing that Jesus had not left in a boat were still waiting for him where they had been fed.

  Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
  When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
  Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
  So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
    Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
   “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
    Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.- John 6:24-35 NIV

Jesus saw through the crowds that were following him.  They were not looking for him.  They were looking for miracles and manna.  They did not understand that Jesus was the bread, the bread of life.  Further more, they did not understand that it was Jesus' flesh, his life that was to be offered up so that they might have life.  Not just earthly life, fed by a few loaves and fishes, but eternal life.   As he told them in the temple, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink." - John 6:54-55 NIV

This was a hard thing for many of them to swallow.  The scripture says that many turned back after that and no longer followed him.  To follow someone for real food was one thing, but to follow for the 'bread of life' what was that?