they'd have to kick Jesus out, too

The Word for today:

Acts 20:1-16

What is the essential concept in scripture?

Without a doubt, the key concept--the one that allows us to enter into authentic biblical understanding--is the concept of grace.

Paul prominently mentions grace throughout his letters.  In today's chapter, he sums up his entire ministry as the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. (Acts 20:24)

Then, as he departs from Ephesus in 20:32, he entrusts the people to God and to the message of his grace.

Is grace just a New Testament concept?  No way!  The great teacher/preacher Kent Hughes sums up his 700-page book on Genesis with this definitive declaration:  "The theme of Genesis is grace."

So what is grace?  Before I encountered the Bible, I thought grace was a little prayer before a meal.  People would "say grace"  before supper.  

When I first entered into Bible teaching, I tried to explain grace with big words and sweeping statements.  I was failing my students.  

Then one day, as I was explaining away, a student asked, "Is there a difference between mercy and grace, or are they the same thing?"  I backtracked and sidestepped and stumbled through a long-winded reply.  When I finally took a breath, I heard my wife's voice pipe up:

"Grace is when we get good things we don't deserve.  Mercy is when we don't get bad things we do deserve."

Out of sheer respect, I bowed from the waist and tipped the hat I wasn't wearing.  She'd nailed it!

Grace is when we get good things we don't deserve.  Grace is the difference between every other religion and the Christian faith. 

Religion works its way to God: if you're a better cub scout and gain more merit badges, then you can go to heaven and leave the rest of us losers behind.

But our unique Christian faith teaches that we are all dead in sins (Ephesians 2:1).  Dead people, of course, can't work!  So God has to do all the saving--every single iota of salvation is accomplished by God!

The Christian faith isn't based on what we do, because we can never do enough.  It is based on what God has done for us, when he paid the penalty for all our sins (past, present, and future) and could thereby declare us as righteous as Himself:

God made Christ--who knew no sin--to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Religion reaches up to grasp for God.  But no one has an "arm" long enough!  Grace is when God reaches down and lifts us up to Himself.

The transaction at the cross--when Christ took our death and sin, as we received his life and righteousness--is so complete, so thorough, so real, so radical that if they wanted to kick (your name here) out of heaven, they'd have to kick Jesus out, too.

That's true.  That's amazing.  That's grace.

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the pirates on the rock

The Word for today:

Acts 20:17-38

mark this:  Acts 20:37-38

And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
But do not think you can at all,
By knocking on the window, call
That child to hear you. He intent
Is all on his play-business bent.
He does not hear, he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.
For, long ago, the truth to say,
He has grown up and gone away,
And it is but a child of air
That lingers in the garden there.
                                 --Robert Louis Stevenson 

I think 'Goodbye' is the hardest thing to say.

Saying 'No' is hard for some people, but it's never been hard for me.  Lately,  I've been practicing 'Sorry,' and I'm getting pretty good at it.  But 'Goodbye' has never been easy.

We  just returned from a week's vacation.  Like many families, our vacations have become traditions; we always go to the same place, at the same time every year.

Every first week in July we pack our tents and bikes and running shoes and Frisbees and fishing poles. We squeeze Frankie, Eddy, and our dog Chip into whatever space is left.  Then with light hearts and high hopes we head off to Wellesley Island State Park in the 1000 Islands region.  It's 8 dollars per day for the campsite and another 8 dollars per day if we rent a boat slip.  We love that place so much that I'm pretty sure we'd pay 1000 dollars a day, if that's what they were asking.

We started going there when Frankie and Eddy were little, when Chip was a brand-new puppy; when time stretched out ahead of us in limitless supply.

But boys and puppies grow up; and as they did, the horizon drew nearer.  This year, we bumped right up against it.

Frankie will graduate from high school next June.  When he does, it's likely that he'll need a summer job to defray college expenses.  As his future encroaches, Wellesley Island will recede farther and farther into our past.

Shelley warned me, a couple years ago, that the summer after Frankie's junior year might be the end for Wellesley Island as we knew it: with all of us together for a week at a time during the most sun-drenched days of the year.  But I can bury realities like that into the deepest depths of forgetfulness.  So I did.

However, it wasn't buried deep enough.   When a big group of rowdy twenty-somethings pulled into the site next to ours, we knew it meant trouble.  Not because they were high-spirited, but because they began to unload what must have been a full cord of firewood.

Eddy is super-sensitive to allergens and smoke and any other air-borne particulates you can think of.  So Shelley watched with concern as they unloaded the wood.  Then she looked to me with alarm as they lit a big campfire in the middle of the afternoon.   The prevailing wind was carrying billows of smoke our way.

She didn't have to speak. Though it was a day before we were scheduled to leave, we both knew it was time to go.  That much smoke would be a kind of hell for Eddy to endure over an entire day.

That's when the reality I'd buried resurfaced: this is that summer--the summer after Frankie's junior year--and now it was time to go.   The last page of my favorite chapter in the whole story had already turned itself.

***

And so we do what we can to hold on to our yesterdays as they slip away into the realm of memory.  As Shelley and the boys gathered and packed our gear, I stole away on Frankie's bike for a tour of the past.  I rode to our first-ever campsite, E-5.  In the woods just behind stands a huge rock, about 15 feet long and 10 feet high, which two little boys once transformed into the deck of a pirate ship. 

Then I went down to the marina, where we'd fished from the docks and wished for the boat we now have.

Then I went to E-59, the best campsite we ever had.  A narrow road winds its way from there to the docks.  Every morning we'd be on that road by 5:30, fishing poles in hand.  The boys, ever eager to get started, always got way ahead of me as we walked.

And they were still there--still just 9 or 10 years old, still wearing their Little League baseball caps.  Then they reached a bend, and were out of sight.

So I pushed down hard on the pedals.  But when I rounded that curve, the road lay empty ahead.  I pushed down harder still and flew down to the marina.  But there were no boys on the dock.

So I tore back over to E-5.  There were no pirates on the rock.

***

I write, every day, about what Jesus says and does, and about what all of that means.  But the best thing about Jesus is that we don't have to say 'Goodbye.'  We might have to say 'Farewell' for a while, but only for the while.

So fare thee well, my ramblin' boys.
May all your ramblin' bring you joy.

So soon--sooner than you think--time will turn you back this way.   I'll see you then, by the Rock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

as seamless as his cloak

The Word for today:
Acts 20:1-16

Mark this: Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

***

Did God die?

Acts 20:28 tells us that God obtained his church with his own blood.

It's a remarkable statement. First of all, it irrefutably points to the deity of Jesus--for it was his blood that was shed upon the cross for the sins of the world.

But did God die, or was it just the "Jesus part" of the God-Man who died out there on Golgotha Hill?

The answer is that there is no "Jesus part" of the eternal Son.  At no point in his ministry or death can we say, 'This is now the human side of him at work.'

Neither can we ever say, 'Now it is his divine nature that is on display.'

Peter correctly preached that it was "Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified" (Acts 4:10), while Paul rightly wrote of those who had "crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Corinthians 2:8)

Be very careful to understand that we are not to rend asunder what God has joined together. Jesus was, and is, as seamless as his garment.  (See Matthew 19:6 and John 19:23)

He had to be. If he weren't one of us, he could not take your place. If he weren't God, his sacrifice would have fallen short of the purchase price.

We are now, admittedly, in theological waters which are over our heads. The theologians call it "hypostatic union" (yikes!) while the Nicene Creed explains that Jesus is very man of very man and very God of very God.

Within this mystery we catch a glimpse of why Trinity has to be:

only God could raise God from the dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

slouching towards Bethlehem

The Word for today:

Acts 19:21-41

mark this:  Acts 19:23-27

About that time there arose a great disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, gathered the craftsmen together and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence…

The kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will topple strongholds:

For the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds.  We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.  (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

It will topple temples:

The Philistine leaders held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising their god, Dagon. They said, "Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!" When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy to us! The one who killed so many of us is now in our power!" Half drunk by now, the people demanded, "Bring out Samson so he can perform for us!" So he was brought from the prison and made to stand at the center of the temple, between the two pillars supporting the roof. Samson said to the servant who was leading him by the hand, "Place my hands against the two pillars. I want to rest against them." The temple was completely filled with people. All the Philistine leaders were there, and there were about three thousand on the roof who were watching Samson and making fun of him. Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "Sovereign LORD, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of my eyes." Then Samson put his hands on the center pillars of the temple and pushed against them with all his might. "Let me die with the Philistines," he prayed. And the temple crashed down on the Philistine leaders and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.  (Judges 16:23-30)

It will topple false gods:

When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.  (1 Samuel 5:1-4)

God will shake everything, so that only the things that cannot be shaken will stand:

‘For thus says the Lord of hosts; Yet once more I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations’ (Haggai 2:6). 

The world has a vested interest in opposing Jesus.  Should he succeed, they stand to lose everything:

About that time there arose a great disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, gathered the craftsmen together and said, "Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence…

(Acts 19:23-27)

***

As it was in the days of Samson, Daniel, and Paul--so it shall be at the end. 

The handwriting on their walls will tell them the time.  Their instincts will sense what their intellects won''t admit--that Jesus is the terminus of their enterprise.  As the hour approaches they will with desperate grip hold on to the things and thoughts they've made their gods.  They will not go gentle into their goodnight.

The death throes of this present age and the birth pangs of the age to come will happen simultaneously, as happened to Rachel on  the way to Bethlehem:

Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son." As she breathed her last--for she was dying--she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.  So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). (Genesis 35:16-19)

Their own poetry foresees their demise, approaching Bethlehem via that same road:

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 

One kingdom must die as the other is born.  Since neither death nor birth are attractive, things will get uglier and uglier as deliverance approaches.  The kings of this world--religion, government, media, commerce, self--will not voluntarily relinquish their idols or crowns.  They will have to be wrested from their hands by a Prince who will appear, to them, to be the absolute antithesis of Peace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1)  "The Second Coming,"  W.B. Yeats

by all means, he ran to win

The Word for today:
Acts 19:1-20


We (correctly) think of Paul as a stickler for the truth: doctrinaire, unbending, staunchly defending the citadel of faith.  He wouldn't compromise the truth under any circumstances.

But, at the same time, he could be surprisingly flexible:
While working with the Jews, I live like a Jew in order to win them; and even though I myself am not subject to the Law of Moses, I live as though I were when working with those who are, in order to win them. 
In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don't obey God's law; I am really under Christ's law. 
Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible. (1 Corinthians 9:20-22)

Paul wouldn't compromise the Way:
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  (John 14:6)

But various means were all permissible--as long as they got the job done:
So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible.

He usually reasoned--proved--from the Old Testament scriptures that Jesus is the promised Messiah.  But when his audience did not have the scriptural background to understand his argument, Paul reasoned from their cultural backgrounds.  He quoted their poetry; he referred to their gods (1), and then he--irrefutably--brought Jesus into their picture.

By all possible means, he said, he meant to save some.  He wasn't in it to place, or to show.  He was in it to win it:
Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible. All this I do for the gospel's sake, in order to share in its blessings. Surely you know that many runners take part in a race, but only one of them wins the prize. Run, then, in such a way as to win the prize. Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last forever.  That is why I run straight for the finish line; that is why I am like a boxer who does not waste his punches. I harden my body with blows and bring it under complete control, to keep myself from being disqualified after having called others to the contest. (1 Corinthians 9:22-27)

He ran to win.  And, by God, he did:
As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life. I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith.  
And now the prize awaits me – the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. (2 Timothy 4:6-7)


And so can we:
And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return.  (2 Timothy 4:8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(1) see Acts 17:22-28

well-paved paths of righteousness

The Word for today:
Acts 18:18-28

mark these:  Acts 18:22-23; 19:21

The next stop was at the port of Caesarea. From there he went up and visited the church at Jerusalem and then went back to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul went back to Galatia and Phrygia, visiting all the believers, encouraging them and helping them to grow in the Lord. 

Afterward Paul felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to go over to Macedonia and Achaia before returning to Jerusalem. "And after that," he said, "I must go on to Rome!" 


The three verses above are typical of the book of Acts, which can often sound and feel like the dizzying itinerary of a whirlwind tour.  Let's take a look at the place names in just those three verses:
"Caesarea, Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, Phrygia, Macedonia, Achaia; then back to Jerusalem, then on to Rome!"

Whew!  The book of Acts follows Paul on three distinct missionary journeys along the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea.  Normally, travel in the ancient world had been imperiled by pirates, barbarian armies, and hostile border guards.

But by Paul's lifetime, Rome had established an enforced peace--Pax Romana--which prevailed throughout the empire.

Furthermore, Roman engineers had crisscrossed the empire with a network of roads (some built so well that they still survive.)  Paul, as a Roman citizen, was at liberty to take these highways to any destination.

Language, too, was unified.  The Greek tongue--famed yet today for its full range of expression--crossed all ethnic and political boundaries.  The New Testament, in order to take full advantage of these factors, would be written in Greek

***

The conditions were as good as they would ever get for the spread of the gospel.

And Paul himself could not have had a more advantageous background: a Pharisee who had studied with the famous teacher Gamaliel (1), he was fully attuned to the Hebrew mind.  At the same time, his Roman citizenship gave him the status he needed to open certain doors and avoid some legal impediments.

Make no mistake that, despite his advantages, Paul was in "enemy territory" during his missionary travels.  (The reader of Acts is left with two main impressions: the relentless travel--and the relentless beatings, stonings, lashings, death threats, and imprisonments.)

But God had "set the table" before him in the presence of those enemies!  God had chosen an optimum era in which to launch the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The infrastructure had been constructed; the peace had been established, the language had taken hold--and God was leading a man of unique gifts and temperament down well-paved paths of righteousness for His name's sake!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

scripture in-the-making

The Word for today:
Acts 18:1-17

Yesterday, we listed the New Testament "books" (actually letters) written by Paul.  Let's review:
 Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians , Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews (1).

These letters constitute half of the New Testament titles.  Here's how they came to be...

The Apostle Paul was the first to launch an organized effort to reach the Roman world with the gospel.  In the process he developed an effective strategy.

Traveling with a team rather than alone, he went to areas where the gospel had not been preached.  He would typically launch his campaign from an area's major city.  Because of his regard for fellow Jews (and because any Gentiles there had some familiarity with Old Testament scriptures) he would speak first at the area's Jewish synagogues (which had been established throughout the Roman world.)

***

Those who responded to the gospel formed the nucleus of  a local church.  Paul and his team would then spend months or occasionally years teaching these new believers.  Persecution inevitably developed, at which time the missionary team moved on, trusting the fledgling church to the Holy Spirit.  It would then be up to these new believers to reach the outlying areas.

Later on, Paul's team or his representatives revisited the young church.  Those who had emerged as spiritual leaders were appointed as elders and the church was given additional teaching.

When a visit was not possible or when Paul heard of special problems, he often wrote a letter of instruction and guidance to the congregation.  Some of these letters found their way into your Bible.

As we watch the church being born in Acts, we are also watching scripture in-the-making.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) the authorship of Hebrews is uncertain