WOW! What an opening to Chapter 13 of the Acts of the Apostles:
Now in the Church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, among whom were Barnabas and Simon… and Manahen… and Saul. And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Saul and Barnabas unto the work to which I have called them.” Then having fasted and prayed and laid their hands upon them, they let them go.
Instantly takes you in with the mystery of “the work to which I have called them.”
What was the word that The Holy Spirit had called Saul and Barnabas?
Other questions popped up in my head too!
The Church of Antioch? Was this the first time the word “Church” is used up to this point in the New Testament?
Also, judging by the use of the term, “laid their hands upon them,” seems to be quite an early Church tradition.
And on a personal note coming off Day 119 in the Old Testament in Three Kings and introducing ‘The Third Testament of the Splendid Spiritual Self,’ here we have an active and speaking Holy Spirit. Random act, pure coincidence or somehow otherwise ordained?
Prayerfully Passive, then Divinely Decision are the changes in the direction of our life?
Jesus cures the blind and the disciples make wicked nonbelievers blind?
Paul’s discourse on the Old Testament… referenced 530 years in so doing but the period of time was likely to be three or four times that. I wonder if the prophets of today can see as far into the future as Paul recalled into the past? Not in terms of technology or worldly things but in terms of our spirit and souls.
God so stated that: “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all that I desire.” Which translates to me that God has a heart and had one throughout the Old Testament history. His heart manifested itself in the Love of Jesus Christ in the New Testament and forever to all of time through the resurrection and eternal life… spiritually thinking. We know how our spirit will live on in heaven but what about our remaining years here on Earth?
David wrote Psalms 3 to 9, 11 to 32, 34 to 41, 68 to 70, 51 to 65,101, 86, 103, 108 to 110, 124, 122, 133, 131 and 138 to 145. He wrote a total of 73. (Reference.com)
“So we now bring you the good news that the promise made to our fathers, God has fulfilled to our children, in raising up Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘Thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee’… never again to return to decay, he has said thus, ‘I will give you the holy and sure promises of David.’ Because he says also in another Psalm, ‘Thou will not let thy Holy One undergo decay.’ For David… fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and did undergo decay; but he whom God raised to life did not undergo it.”
Realization that the resurrection was not made retroactive, was not grandfathered, to the good guys and gals of the Old Testament pre the resurrection of Jesus. What of those like John the Baptist that pre-deceased Jesus?
King David’s body did undergo decay; Jesus’ body did not. Why then do (or will do) our bodies undergo decay as physical evidence suggests?
As Billy Graham states… there are some things we humans cannot understand and must accept by faith!
I believe that and pray that God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit direct my thinking. Not that I can think like God but I surrender to His Will and His Power to carry out His Will with my life. I let God do my thinking for me!
Paul: “Be it known therefore to you, brethren, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and in Him everyone who believes is acquitted of all the things of which you could not be acquitted by the Law of Moses.”
Something clicked for me as I read, typed, and reread the above quotation of Paul.
First is there any way spelled out in the Bible that one can be acquitted in the Law of Moses?
Secondly, any sin, any evil act, even those we cannot yet fathomed in our minds (notice I did not say ‘imagine or inspire’ as I believe evil cannot be referenced as doing good or positive things; same reasoning as to why present day terrorists cannot be inspired to do heinous acts) is acquitted of those who believe. Forgiveness of all sins no matter what they are or who committed them is possible.
The people asked to have all of this said to them on the following Sabbath. Repetition was working even back them!
Many of the Jews and the worshipping converts went away with Paul and Barnabas, and they (Paul and Barnabas) talked with them and urged them to hold fast to the grace of God.
Some rejected the spoken word and judged themselves unworthy of eternal life.
And there you have it once again… that selfish egotistical control of ‘free will,’ yet if a habit is habitual cab ‘free will’ ever be free?
And in Lystra… a certain man… lame from his very birth… He listened to Paul as he spoke; when Paul, gazing at him and seeing that he had faith to be cured, said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on thy feet.” And he sprang up and began to walk.
Then the crowds, seeing what Paul had done, saying “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.” And they called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury… and with the people would have offered sacrifice… But upon hearing this, the apostles Barnabas and Paul rushed into the crowd, tearing their clothes, and shouting, “Men, why are you doing this? We also are mortals, human beings like you, bringing to you the good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God… And even with these words they could hardly restrain the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
But some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium; and after winning over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking that he was dead.
But the disciples gathered round him and he got up and re-entered the city.
Got up and re-entered the city after being stoned?
After preaching the gospel… reassuring the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and reminding them that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed presbyters for them in each church, with prayer and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
…And from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been entrusted to the grace of God for the work which they had now finished. On their arrival they called the church together and reported all that God had done with them, and how he had opened up to the Gentiles a door of faith.
The ‘Door of Faith’ is Open; Let Us Walk Through to True Freedom!
Day 120: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; The ‘Door of Faith’ is Open; Let Us Walk In for True Freedom!
Read and inspired by the New Testament, The Acts of The Apostles Chapters 13-14.
Bible Notes:
Saint Luke, the author of the third Gospel, wrote also this history of the primitive Church. Opening with the story of the Ascension and Pentecost, this book records the important events of the early Church: the mass conversions after Pentecost; the persecution by Herod; the conversion of Saint Paul; his three missionary journeys; his arrest and final trip to Rome
Acts Chapter 13: Paul’s first journey: Antioch; Cyprus; Antioch in Pisidia; Paul’s discourse: The Old Testament; The New Testament; God’s promise fulfilled; Forgiveness of sins granted; Result of Paul’s discourse; Paul and Barnabas persecuted.
Now in the Church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, among whom were Barnabas and Simon… and Manahen… and Saul. And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Saul and Barnabas unto the work to which I have called them.” Then having fasted and prayed and laid their hands upon them, they let them go.
So they, sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus.
…began to preach the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews… they also had John as assistant… there they came across a Jewish magician and false prophet named Bar-Jesus… Elymas, the sorcerer (for his name is so translated)… Saul (also called Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit… will thou not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And instantly there fell upon him a mist of darkness… then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed and was astonished at the Lord’s teaching.
…but John left them and returned to Jerusalem…
After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them (Paul and his companions), saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.”
Israelites and you who fear God, hearken… sojourners in the land of Egypt… forty years… after about four hundred and fifty years. After that he gave them judges, until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then they demanded a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Cis… for forty years… And removing him, he raised up David to be their king… (Paul’s discourse on the Old Testament).
God: “I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all that I desire.”
Paul continued with his discourse on the New Testament: “From his offspring, God according to promise brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus… John the Baptist: ‘I am not he whom you suppose me to be, but behold, there comes one after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose’… and all among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent… and the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath… But God raised him from the dead on the third day; and he was seen during many days by those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem; and they are now witnesses for him to the people.”
“So we now bring you the good news that the promise made to our fathers, God has fulfilled to our children, in raising up Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, ‘Thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee’… never again to return to decay, he has said thus, ‘I will give you the holy and sure promises of David.’ Because he says also in another Psalm, ‘Thou will not let thy Holy One undergo decay.’ For David… fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and did undergo decay; but he whom God raised to life did not undergo it.”
Paul: “Be it known therefore to you, brethren, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and in Him everyone who believes is acquitted of all the things of which you could not be acquitted by the Law of Moses.”
The people asked to have all of this said to them on the following Sabbath. Repetition was working even back them!
Many of the Jews and the worshipping converts went away with Paul and Barnabas, and they (Paul and Barnabas) talked with them and urged them to hold fast to the grace of God.
The Jews were filled with jealousy and contradicted what was said by Paul, and blasphemed. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out plainly: “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, to be a means of salvation to the very ends of the earth.’”
But the Jews… stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drive them from their district… but they (Paul and Barnabas) shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them… and the disciples continued to be filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Acts Chapter 14: At Iconium many believe; At Lystra a cripple is cured; Paul refuses divine honors; Paul is stoned; Derbe; the return to Antioch.
Now it came to pass at Iconium… and so spoke that a great multitude of Jews and Greeks believed. But the disbelieving Jews stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brethren. They (Paul and Barnabas) stayed a long time, therefore, acting fearlessly in the Lord, who gave testimony to the word of his grace by permitting signs and wonders to be done by their hands… But when there was a movement on the part of the Gentiles and of the Jews with their rulers to insult and stone them, hearing of it, they escaped to the Lycaonian cities Lystra and Derbe… and there they went on preaching the gospel.
And in Lystra… a certain man… lame from his very birth… He listened to Paul as he spoke; when Paul, gazing at him and seeing that he had faith to be cured, said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on thy feet.” And he sprang up and began to walk.
Then the crowds, seeing what Paul had done, saying “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.” And they called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury… and with the people would have offered sacrifice… But upon hearing this, the apostles Barnabas and Paul rushed into the crowd, tearing their clothes, and shouting, “Men, why are you doing this? We also are mortals, human beings like you, bringing to you the good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God… And even with these words they could hardly restrain the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
But some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium; and after winning over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking that he was dead. But the disciples gathered round him and he got up and re-entered the city.
After preaching the gospel… reassuring the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and reminding them that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed presbyters for them in each church, with prayer and fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
…And from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had first been entrusted to the grace of God for the work which they had now finished. On their arrival they called the church together and reported all that God had done with them, and how he had opened up to the Gentiles a door of faith.
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