Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 August 2007
Presented to the Swift Current Corps 23 May 2010 and 17 May 2015
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Acts is a neat book. Did you know that It is the only history in the NT? Luke and Acts also were written by the same author and these books actually come together as sort of a two volume set that many scholars like to call ‘Luke-Acts.’ Together this set comprises more than 30% of the NT. Luke-Acts is thus important for us to understand.
Acts always reminds me of a play. Maybe it’s the name (Act 1, scene 2). But particularly in the first part, Acts reminds me of a Shakespearian play. Anyone remember studying Shakespeare in school?
All right, here’s another quiz for you. Who can name the play these quotes are from: ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’ “to be or not to be, that is the question” – here’s an easy one - “Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”?
Shakespeare wrote very dramatic plays and some of the tragedies are pretty tragic like Hamlet. Remember, his ‘to be or not to be’ speech where, of course, he is either pretending to be insane (or actually goes insane) while trying catch his father’s killer who happens to be his uncle and is also married to his mother. (Sounds like a soap opera actually) And in the end - everybody dies…
Or on a happier note, there is Romeo and Juliet. Young love. But their parents object so they sneak around for a while and then eventually (pause) kill themselves…okay so not a lot of happy endings…but they are very dramatic and neat stories nonetheless.
Shakespeare was a master playwright. And Acts reminds me of Shakespeare’s work. (Only its better) God uses Luke to communicate the VERY dramatic REAL events that happen here and Luke attributes to Peter some amazing speeches that could cause the post-modern reader to recall Mark Anthony, Lady MacBeth, or Hamlet.
And he uses the scenes and speeches that we will look at today and in the weeks to come to tell the readers how God’s Spirit comes at Pentecost and releases the disciples to proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
As the curtains open on Acts 1’s scene one. The narrator recaps the miracles of the end of Luke (1:1-5) and the resurrection that Susan spoke about last week. He then further explains Jesus’ ascension to heaven (1:6-12) and we now are invited to watch as the disciples, men and women alike (1:14), gather around in the upper room (1:13) casting lots to learn who God has chosen in place of Judas; the gruesome details of whose death unfold for the audience as the protagonist, the Apostle Peter[1] (1-15 of Vol. II) takes to the stage with this opening address (vs. 15-20).
he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language, Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
Peter - in his address - shows us all how Judas’ death fulfils the scriptures of Pss 69:25 and 109:8.[2] And then as he finishes speaking, the stage fades to black, ending Acts 1. …I trust that you are reading along at home.
Now just before we open the curtain on Acts 2, you should know a bit about the way the stage is set. When the curtain comes up not only will all the disciples still be together. But also in the scene will be ‘Jews from every nation under heaven (2:5)’ and they have come to celebrate Pentecost.[3]
And these Jews on the scene in Acts II here are very familiar with the tradition of the Messiah because they have been looking for someone to deliver them from the evils of the occupation. They have been looking for someone who could offer them freedom for their promised land. They have been looking for someone who can provide salvation for the Jews (cf. psalm 72, 2 Samuel 9). They have been looking for the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour of Israel.
It is upon this crowd that we gaze as the curtain rises on scene one in Acts II: (I’m reading from the NIV, Acts II)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing (sound effects) of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be (pillars) tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
And this is the dramatic scene in the opening of Acts 2. And if this were a Shakespearean play, now, hundreds of years later, there would be - Cole’s Notes! - so that we can all understand the nuances of what is happening before us and there are many nuances…
If we had our Cole’s Notes with us today there would probably be an asterisk beside the word ‘Pentecost’ (vs. 1) because when we think of Pentecost we usually think of this very moment: the advent of the Holy Spirit in Acts – but it is more than that.
Your Cole’s Notes would probably say that Pentecost is also known by various other names: the feast of weeks (Exod. 34:22; Dt 15:10, 16:9-12; Nu 28:26-31), feast of harvest (Exod 23:16) and the day of first fruits (Exod 34:22; Nu 28:26; Lev 23:9-14) and this is neat: Pentecost occurs on the 50th day after the Sabbath Passover (Exod. 19:1)[4] and here (in Acts II) it is about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.
Now this Jewish festival[5], Pentecost, is a time actually to celebrate God giving the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai:[6] Remember the Ten Commandments and how Moses climbs the Mountain (twice; Exod. 19-20, 31, 34; Dt. 4-5, 10) and God writes the 10 commandments on the stone tablets[7] with his very own finger (Exod. 31:18; Dt. 4:13, 10:1) and when Moses returns from the Mountain his face is literally radiant (34:29-35): it’s shining.
While in our text it is now about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.[8] And as Pentecost is about the Ten Commandments, the covenant and an empowering of the Israelites for their new life outside of Egypt[9] and here now with the coming of the Spirit, in Acts II, the disciples are empowered for their new life in the Kingdom of God (Lk 24:49).[10]
This event certainly does link Jesus to Moses as a deliver of his people – and those present in this scene are probably beginning to understand that Jesus is that deliverer.
There is even more though for the curious reader here to link Jesus to Moses (verse 3): the tongues or pillars of fire above their heads. Remember as God was leading Israel away from Pharaoh’s Army, and parted the Red Sea for them. Remember as he led them around the desert for that generation (Exod 23:21, 33:14; Dt 4:7) what did God lead them with? …: A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar (or tongue) of fire by night. And here we have pillars of fire linking our minds again to Israel’s delivery and Israel’s covenant with God.[11] Isn’t that neat?
And even more – you see the Bible is REAL. These things really did happen but it is also a literary masterpiece with symbolism everywhere – really would we expect anything less from God’s own Word?
Look at 2:6: “each one heard them speaking in his own language;” some have compared this to an un-doing, as it were, of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) actually. Do you remember that story? The people provoke God through the building of this tower and as a result, all of a sudden they are babbling in different languages. God confuses their talk. It is kind of hard to work together when you don’t understand what other people are saying – but now what happens? In Acts II, it is reversed. Instead of language being confused, people can actually now hear the Gospel proclaimed in their OWN language.
And further, some people even relate this event to the giving of the law at Sinai again as, according to Jewish tradition, at that point every people heard the law in its own language.[12]
And now certainly we, as well as the much earlier readers of Acts too can understand here the implicit symbolism representing the truth that Jesus, like Moses, is deliverer of His people[13] - and actually he is the one that they have been waiting for.
But more than that. Your Cole’s notes would probably also have an asterisk beside the words ‘the violent wind’[14] in verse 2 where it says, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”
Now, the passage does not claim that the Holy Spirit is a wind rather the Holy Spirit is like the sound wind makes but, this is neat, HERE in Greek, the word for wind is the SAME word for Spirit in the original Greek (cf. Gen 1:2; Eze 37:9, 14; Jn 3:8) so the SPIRIT (or wind) is coming like the WIND (spirit) and this same play on words occurs in the creation story of Gen 1:2[15] where it says that the Spirit (or wind) of God hovered there - over the waters. This passage is about a beginning, a creation, a new Kingdom, if you like, and Jesus here is not only linked to man, he is also linked to God. This very real act of the Spirit coming on Pentecost unites the symbolism of a messiah and of God himself[16].
So then lets recap: they are all together in one place. The Spirit blows in, sound like a violent wind, tongues of fire are settling on people -- Now lets join the scene in Acts 2:17. the Apostle Peter stands up with the 11 (2:14) to make his speech (Acts 2:17-21) He quotes from the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32) [and Psalm 16:8-10]:
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
(It will be) the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
As if in a Shakespearian soliloquy, Luke records here what Peter explains, from Scriptures. He explains for us exactly what we can see unfolding the scene before us. He explains that Jesus is from God and Jesus is Lord[17] and he explains that ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
And in case we missed it still Peter says from verse 22 onwards – Jesus was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs…and now, if not before, now people get it and so Peter turns to the common everyday people listening and says:
Jesus was accredited by God and you … (verse 23) you and wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. You, You killed him.
This is tragic. This is as tragic as any play. The people get it now that Jesus was the messiah (and Peter goes on about it more in the rest of the chapter). They get it. He was the one who was supposed to deliver them. He was the one who was supposed to save them. He was the one who was going to lead them into the Kingdom to come. But there is one problem, he died. And not only that, ‘you’, Peter says, ‘you killed him.’
Can you imagine the sorrow, the guilt, the pain? It must be like Romeo and Juliet’s parents: they loved their children with everything in them. They pinned their future hopes on their children and now because of their actions, their unforgiveness, their very loved children are dead.
You see Jesus was to be our deliver, Peter says, and now you killed him. You wanted a deliver. You had a deliver and you killed him. But there’s more.
Peter makes it clear to us that ‘you’ killed the messiah but he also makes it clear (vs22-23) that he ‘was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge;’ He was ‘accredited by God with miracles, wonders and signs which God did.’ And (verse 24) God raised him from the dead. Jesus is inextricably linked to God and you killed Him and he was raised from the dead
And it’s not necessarily understood as good news yet for those listening[18] - The Judeans know that God is just. And so this could be a little scary really. They here are waiting for their deserved penalty for killing their Messiah.[19] They already saw what happened to Judas for betraying Christ (Acts 1:16-20).
This is a part of the world and understanding of the Jews. They understand that there is a punishment for sin.[20] They understand that there is a penalty for killing Jesus, whom those here –from what we’ve examined today – whom those here, are rightly convinced is the Messiah.
These people are now standing in front of Peter – like repentant children in front of the principal, realising that they’ve done something terribly wrong, hoping against hope to somehow make it right and maybe even avoid their punishment (cf. John 21:15-17 re: Peter’s own restoration): Verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””
What can we do?
We killed Jesus. We killed our Messiah. We killed God’s son. He died for our sins. He’s raised from the dead. Is there anything we can do to be forgiven by Him and by God and be accepted into His Kingdom?
Peter says, verse 38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Now this is significant. You see, as we looked at in Luke, Jesus is ushering in this Kingdom of God. And earlier in this chapter we saw the Spirit of God himself come down from Heaven (Acts 2:1-4, Lk 24). We saw the power of God manifest to announced the Kingdom of God is coming now; it is here.
And what does this Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of forgiveness. It is a Kingdom –like the Lord’s prayer says - where we forgive those who do things against us and God forgives us what we have done – even our sending [as was his purpose and with God’s perfect foreknowledge (vss. 22-23)] God’s own son to die on the cross.
What is it that one must do to be a part of this Kingdom? We just have to repent (This doesn’t just mean change your way of acting – it means change your whole way of thinking) – You must repent – you must now believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and Jesus is Lord. You must believe and be baptised (which here is an initiation ceremony); you must be initiated into the Kingdom of Forgiveness of Sins and the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus – and that’s it.[21]
Peter says then “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This same Holy Spirit that came down on Pentecost and even more than that he assures us that this promise isn’t just for them. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” And, like we read earlier, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
And look what it says, just before the curtain closes on our scene here. It says in verse 47 “day by day the Lord added to their number those being saved.”
And may it be continue to be so. Come and pray for the Spirit in our lives.
Benediction: Galatians 5:22-26a.
www.sheepspeak.com
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[1] After Acts 15, Paul becomes the central apostle, whose acts we are following.
[2] “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ (Psalm 69:25) and, “‘May another take his place of leadership’ (Psalm 109:8).
[3] These Jews are probably members of the Diaspora: shortly after Jesus died, there was an unsuccessful Jewish rebellion (68-73 CE) against the Romans [which led to the destruction of the temple (70 CE).] As a result, many Judeans had to flee for their lives. This dispersion was throughout the Mediterranean world and these dispersed Jews are members of the now commonly called Diaspora. However, “We have seen that this Dispersion had [actually] begun six centuries before in the Babylonian Captivity, and had been renewed in the settling of Alexandria.” Will Durant, Caesar and Christ. (TSC 3: New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944), 545. Those present here would be from the earlier group as Acts is set before the destruction of the temple and some even argue that the scene in Acts 2 actually takes place in the temple.
[4] Thus the name Pentecost from the Hebrew he pentekoste "fiftieth"
[5] There is much discussion about whether or not Luke was making specific reference to this event at the time of his writing; regardless of whether this was an intentional parallel drawn by the author of Luke, the symbolism seems to be divinely intentioned. Cf. Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 57-58, for a thorough discussion of this.
[6] This continues to this day. Also cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 57.
[7] The first time (Exod. 31:18); The second time, according to the Exodus account, Moses is required to do the writing himself (Exod. 34:1; but cf. Dt. 10:1)
[8] In John’s narrative (John 20:19-23), The disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit before Jesus has gone to ‘his Father’s house.’ This may be a different record of the same event; however, it may not. This appearance of the Holy Spirit is not an act unique to Acts II.
[9] Robert W. Wall, p. 54. : [Some] interpreters posit a new dispensation has dawned when the Holy Spirit through the Messiah mediates a new covenant. (cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 8:2).
[10] Cf. Willimon, p. 28.
[11] These tongues are also an obvious fulfilment of Luke 3:16: ‘He shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” They may however also represent the altar with its holy fire. Fire is also a symbol of purity and purification, cf. also Lenski, p. 59.
[12] Fredrick Frye Bruce, The Book of Acts. (TNICNT: Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 54.
[13] Certainly readers of Matthew would understand this, as one of the themes of Matthew is that Jesus is ‘the new Moses.’
[14] Jesus himself compares the coming of the Spirit to the wind, see John 3:8.
[15] R.C.H Lenski, p. 58: “This mighty sound was surely a symbol of power, and we may recall that both the Hebrew and the Greek words for Spirit, Ruach and IIamven denote wind or breath.” Some also suggest that the ‘whole house’ referred to in this verse here may actually be an allusion to the Temple, which was destroyed in 70 AD.
[16] See John 3:8 where Jesus himself compared the coming of the Spirit to the blowing of the wind.
[17] It is significant here, I believe, that Luke quoted the Greek text. He was able to thus make a strong intentional link then with the word ‘Lord’.
[18] This is reminiscent of Jesus’ appearance to Peter right after Peter had denied him and he was crucified.
[19] Cf. Robert W. Wall. pp. 66-67.
[20] Cf. NT Wright, The Problem of Evil and the Justice of God.
[21] Ibid.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Luke 16:1-13 - Sudden Death Overtime
Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 29 July 2007
and Swift Current Corps on 21 March 2010 and 30 Nov 2014
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the 2014 version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/11/luke-161-13-sudden-death-overtime-2014.html
I love here it in Saskatchewan. I love everyone here. I love it the Nipawin and Tisdale. You know what though: it’s not the same as Victoria and Vancouver. I love it very much back on the coast too but you know there are few advantages to Nipawin and Tisdale. For instance, here when you come to a stop sign – this will sound bizarre to my friends on the west coast – when you come to a stop sign you actually stop and make sure that you are not going to hit anybody. And it is safe to cross at the crosswalk – again people actually stop. I don’t have to pick up my kids and run across as fast as I possibly can; I love it.
Here, unlike Vancouver also, there aren’t sirens going off 24 hours a day and the other day I went down to the Co-op and, guess what? I found a parking spot. Honestly, there were times in Vancouver where the closest spot I could find to where I was going was as far as the Co-op store is from here. This is true and then it would cost $2.00/hour even to park there. It is a great community here and everyone is so friendly; we love it we really do…
There is one thing I must confess that I miss though – I’m sorry - the radio. Now, the Christian radio station in Nipawin (104.1 FM, http://www.lighthousefm.com/) is great. It really is. On the west coast though we had so many radio stations to choose from. Whatever mood you were in: 24-hour news, talk, 24-hour music of your choice, flip to whatever you want, dedicated sports channels…
When Rebecca was just born, I used to listen to hockey every Friday night. You see. Friday night was my night to be home with Rebecca and clean the house. So I would listen to the junior hockey games on the radio as I was doing the dishes, etc.
I remember this one game. I caught the 3rd period. The home team just dominated. It was three or even four nothing coming into the last minute of play. These players had worked really hard, just dominated and they started celebrating the winning of the last game of their season -(pause)- with one minute left to go. Then the other team scored. Then again; 30 seconds left. Then again; 10 seconds left. It was four nothing less than a minute ago – they were celebrating – now they are up 4-3 with only 5 seconds left and they aren’t so confident – and now there’s a face-off in their own zone. And you know what happens? The away team scores with less than a second left to force sudden-death overtime.
Our team squanders their lead and as a result they face sudden death.
If you’ll turn with me back to Luke chapter 16, the manager we read about also squanders from his position, and now faces sudden death – or sudden unemployment anyway: he is fired.
Jesus tells this parable directly to his disciples right after he tells the story of the prodigal son (cf. R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX). Remember, the point of that parable (that we looked at earlier today)? What happens when the son squanders what (the) God (figure) gives him? He is forgiven. The parable is about God’s forgiveness of the son who squanders everything on wild (NIV) or dissolute (NRSV) living. As we return to God, He will forgive us whatever we have done.
But this parable raises a question…can we just keep sinning and it doesn’t matter?[1] If we are members of God’s family, his household, can we just squander everything on ‘wild living’ and sin, like the son? After all, the father not only forgave him but also threw a big party in for him. So, why not keep sinning?
And this is a question that Jesus answers right away in this parable[2]: God (the father) in the prodigal story forgives the one that squanders what he is given but God in the manager story does not.
Jesus says, (verses 1 and 2), “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of SQUANDERING (NRSV) his possessions. [same] So he called him in and asked him, ‘what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' You face sudden death – sudden unemployment.
The prodigal son is forgiven but the wicked manager is fired. Jesus is stopping any thoughts that we can just keep sinning when we work for God right here. If there are any who think that they can go out and waste everything that God has given them Jesus answers them emphatically… No – No – No, He says, give me an account. [a]
The manager is working for (the) God (figure) –just like the disciples are and just like we are - and now he is fired and he never saw this coming [c].
Verse 3, he asks: “what shall I do now… I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m too proud to beg.” He’s being fired for squandering what God has given him and he probably didn’t see it coming.
Well, how are we doing with what God has given us? We know, of course, that our jobs, our businesses, farms, car, home, family, and all the gifts and talents that we have really all belong to God and we are just managing them until Jesus returns; so, how have we been doing with that?
Are we using them for the Kingdom and God or are we squandering them on ourselves? At anytime, Jesus will come back. At anytime the owner will ask for an account of what we’ve done with his possessions: are we using them for what he wants or are we squandering them on ourselves and on ‘wild living’?
I can think of a time when I was a pre-teen and I was in the living room when my dad was watching some telethon to help the needy kids. He was talking to me about it for a while. Trying to instill the values of helping others – or something like that – and then right when they are asking for money –on purpose – he says, "thanks Mike for all the help you’ve given me working around the yard this summer" ...and he gives me five bucks... while he’s picking up the telephone. He says, "now you can spend this on anything you want"…while he dials…"anything at all…Hello telethon"…and he hands me the phone…immediately, I’m thinking about giving the telethon - $2.50 (or less), but I know what my father is saying that I should do with this money.
Are we doing what our Heavenly Father wants with what He gives us? What are we doing with His money, yes, but also – can you teach? Are you teaching others about Jesus? Are you organised? Are you using administration skills for the Kingdom? Are you are social person? Are you telling people about Jesus and visiting them when they are sick? All of this is included in the first question Jesus is addressing with the parable but he doesn’t stop here.
Look at verses 4-7. These are interesting verses for some sure but let’s see what we can make of them, shall we?[3] The manager says to himself, ‘What shall I do now? — I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
So do you see what the manager is doing here? Now this isn’t his money, remember. This is the master’s money – in one way or another[4] – this is the master’s money and the manager’s plan is to give it away; isn’t this what he got in trouble for in the first place – wasting his master’s money? !!!
Now that he is out on his ear, this is the idea, he slashes what people owe his master, and makes a lot of friends in the process. No kidding… can you imagine? And these are not just small personal loans. This is big business, these amounts, by the way. This isn’t just a family operation. Can you imagine if the CEO of RBC –faced sudden death- can you imagine if he just got his pink slip and went out and cancelled everybody’s mortgage or student loans…no kidding people would like him and offer him jobs. Or like a politician, who looks like he’ll lose an election, bails out big business or privatises something. No kidding someone will offer him a job.
But what is Jesus saying here? Is he saying that it is okay to cheat God like the manager cheats the owner? This is another question inherent to the parable…and look at verse 8. When all this happens and the owner potentially loses the equivalent of millions in the process, it says “the master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.” He commended him for wasting his money, which is what he fired him for in the first place. What?!?
So what is Jesus saying? …Is he saying that we can be tricky and waste God’s possessions? Well…no. And this is where the first part of the parable that we spent so much time looking at comes into play. No you cannot waste that which God has given you and Jesus is pretty clear about that. If we can’t be trusted, if we squander what God has given us, we will be fired. We will lose; It is the same as stopping playing hockey in the last minute. We will face sudden death overtime and - if we stop playing - we will lose.
Further if we have any doubts about this, in verses 10-12 Jesus is explicit. There is no ambiguity. He says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Did you get that? Jesus is saying that it is not the untrustworthiness, the shrewdness, the trickiness, that is being applauded in this parable. It is not the fact that he has without permission reduced all these debts for his own personal gain– it is not this that Jesus is applauding. He says so – he says if you are dishonest with a little, you will be dishonest with a lot. And if you do squander -waste the talents God gives you- you will not be eternally employed.
So then, if it is not the manager’s untrustworthiness that is being applauded? Why is the owner happy with the manager who wastes and squanders his things? Is it that he put profit first? He cut a deal with big business to get a new job. Like a corrupt politician about to be kicked out the door selling of a country’s possessions. The manager doesn’t want to do any physical work but he still wants to make big bucks. Is this what the parable is talking about?[5] Is this what is being applauded: planning for his own financial security? [b]
No. Jesus answers this question in verses 13 and 15. He says emphatically, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” ...What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” And Jesus goes even further earlier in Luke when he says (14:33) that one should be willing to give up all one’s possessions to follow him…
So why does he commend the manager? What’s he talking about? Really what is he talking about? He makes it clear that he is NOT saying that we should aim for material gain (v.15) and if we do we are not serving God (v.13) and he is not applauding untrustworthiness for he says clearly that those who are untrustworthy here are not worthy of trust in the Kingdom; so what is Jesus talking about in this parable?
Jesus' point to his disciples in this parable and Jesus' point to us is this, if even the people of this world (v. 8), who are not even wise enough to secure the ‘true riches’ for themselves (v.11), even the wicked people who squander what they are entrusted with on themselves, and don’t use God’s wealth for His purposes (cf. Luke 12:13-21) - even the people of this world are wise enough to prepare for their future when they know it is near (v.8), so should not we, who have been entrusted with so much more –the knowledge of the Kingdom of God – should not we be even more wise than they?
In context this makes sense. The prodigal son comes back. He returns to Father. He comes back to live with God. Sure he strays but he comes back and, like the son, if we stray we can return. We are welcome back and the story of the prodigal makes that clear. But don’t leave it too late.
The story of the manager contains a caution. The manager did not return to doing what was right before it was too late. You see, we are welcome back to spend time with and to do the will of God (cf. Lk 13:22-30; Mat 7:13-14) but we shouldn’t be encouraged to celebrate so much that we stop playing before the game is over (cf. Lk 12:35-41,41-48). Even the untrustworthy manager, when he did finally see the impending future, even the untrustworthy manager, did everything that he could to prepare for it. Do we who have already been entrusted with the riches of the knowledge of God care as much as he about the impending future? how are we doing at managing God’s time, money, and skills that He has given us?
How are we doing? Are we using our gifts for the Kingdom? This is what the Kingdom looks like; this is what it is like when we have returned to the father and when we are trustworthy managers:[6] If our dad gives us five bucks and tells us to give it to Jerry’s kids, we will give it to Jerry’s kids. If our Father lets us have a good job, with good pay, and invites us to give some of that money back, we will give it back. If He gives us the skills to teach Sunday school, fix the church, or nudges us to invite our friends to church, we will do that and more. Then we will avoid being in the same position as the manager. You see, we have already been entrusted with the true riches of the Kingdom. It is not too late.
The third period’s not over. We can play the full game and experience the victory with Jesus. We can. No matter if we’ve already started to squander our lead like the son or the manager, it is not too late yet. We can come back. We can come back. We can return and experience the victory with Jesus, we can. Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. Let's avoid 'sudden death' and build on that lead playing for the Lord.
Amen.
Return to Index
-----------------------------
[1] This is one of the questions that he is answering, for his disciples (cf. Lk 8:8-10; Mt 13:10-17; Mk 4:10-12), I submit, with this parable.
[2] This is not the only place where it can be argued that Jesus answers a parable with a parable. One of Luke’s two references to the parable `hiding your light under a jar` appears to be part of his explanation to his disciples of the parable of the Soils (Luke 8).
[3] The scholars varied opinions are around things such as whether or not the manager was acting honourably or dishonourably here, whether or not this section is making a comment about the character of God, and questions about if the manager's untrustworthiness and love of money were actually rewarded; I argue alongside the majority opinion, based on the larger context as I address later in this sermon, that it is not these things that are being rewarded at all.
[4] R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX: Luke, John, 308-309 has a good discussion of various theories around how the wealth was acquired and why or why not the manager’s actions here are justifiable. This is a contentious issue; I don’t think that it need be however. If even the ‘wicked’ are smart enough to prepare for the future in their wicked ways, how much more should the trustworthy (faithful) (v. 11) prepare for the future and how much more seriously should we take the true riches (v. 12) with which we have been entrusted
[5] Some may suggest that we act this way; you’ve heard the argument that you can only take care of others once you take care of yourself. What good would we be to the poor, if we were broke ourselves?
[6] I have a really good quote to insert here from the Interpretation series. Check back later.
[a] cf. http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#8474403761697437649
[b] cf. http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#3175897458761777177
[c] cf. Doctrine 9 of the Salvation Army (We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.) ; I am not suggesting here that this theme is the central element of the parable. I am however suggesting that it may be implicit and certainly serves for smooth transition from the preceding parable.
and Swift Current Corps on 21 March 2010 and 30 Nov 2014
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the 2014 version click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/11/luke-161-13-sudden-death-overtime-2014.html
I love here it in Saskatchewan. I love everyone here. I love it the Nipawin and Tisdale. You know what though: it’s not the same as Victoria and Vancouver. I love it very much back on the coast too but you know there are few advantages to Nipawin and Tisdale. For instance, here when you come to a stop sign – this will sound bizarre to my friends on the west coast – when you come to a stop sign you actually stop and make sure that you are not going to hit anybody. And it is safe to cross at the crosswalk – again people actually stop. I don’t have to pick up my kids and run across as fast as I possibly can; I love it.
Here, unlike Vancouver also, there aren’t sirens going off 24 hours a day and the other day I went down to the Co-op and, guess what? I found a parking spot. Honestly, there were times in Vancouver where the closest spot I could find to where I was going was as far as the Co-op store is from here. This is true and then it would cost $2.00/hour even to park there. It is a great community here and everyone is so friendly; we love it we really do…
There is one thing I must confess that I miss though – I’m sorry - the radio. Now, the Christian radio station in Nipawin (104.1 FM, http://www.lighthousefm.com/) is great. It really is. On the west coast though we had so many radio stations to choose from. Whatever mood you were in: 24-hour news, talk, 24-hour music of your choice, flip to whatever you want, dedicated sports channels…
When Rebecca was just born, I used to listen to hockey every Friday night. You see. Friday night was my night to be home with Rebecca and clean the house. So I would listen to the junior hockey games on the radio as I was doing the dishes, etc.
I remember this one game. I caught the 3rd period. The home team just dominated. It was three or even four nothing coming into the last minute of play. These players had worked really hard, just dominated and they started celebrating the winning of the last game of their season -(pause)- with one minute left to go. Then the other team scored. Then again; 30 seconds left. Then again; 10 seconds left. It was four nothing less than a minute ago – they were celebrating – now they are up 4-3 with only 5 seconds left and they aren’t so confident – and now there’s a face-off in their own zone. And you know what happens? The away team scores with less than a second left to force sudden-death overtime.
Our team squanders their lead and as a result they face sudden death.
If you’ll turn with me back to Luke chapter 16, the manager we read about also squanders from his position, and now faces sudden death – or sudden unemployment anyway: he is fired.
Jesus tells this parable directly to his disciples right after he tells the story of the prodigal son (cf. R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX). Remember, the point of that parable (that we looked at earlier today)? What happens when the son squanders what (the) God (figure) gives him? He is forgiven. The parable is about God’s forgiveness of the son who squanders everything on wild (NIV) or dissolute (NRSV) living. As we return to God, He will forgive us whatever we have done.
But this parable raises a question…can we just keep sinning and it doesn’t matter?[1] If we are members of God’s family, his household, can we just squander everything on ‘wild living’ and sin, like the son? After all, the father not only forgave him but also threw a big party in for him. So, why not keep sinning?
And this is a question that Jesus answers right away in this parable[2]: God (the father) in the prodigal story forgives the one that squanders what he is given but God in the manager story does not.
Jesus says, (verses 1 and 2), “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of SQUANDERING (NRSV) his possessions. [same] So he called him in and asked him, ‘what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' You face sudden death – sudden unemployment.
The prodigal son is forgiven but the wicked manager is fired. Jesus is stopping any thoughts that we can just keep sinning when we work for God right here. If there are any who think that they can go out and waste everything that God has given them Jesus answers them emphatically… No – No – No, He says, give me an account. [a]
The manager is working for (the) God (figure) –just like the disciples are and just like we are - and now he is fired and he never saw this coming [c].
Verse 3, he asks: “what shall I do now… I’m not strong enough to dig. I’m too proud to beg.” He’s being fired for squandering what God has given him and he probably didn’t see it coming.
Well, how are we doing with what God has given us? We know, of course, that our jobs, our businesses, farms, car, home, family, and all the gifts and talents that we have really all belong to God and we are just managing them until Jesus returns; so, how have we been doing with that?
Are we using them for the Kingdom and God or are we squandering them on ourselves? At anytime, Jesus will come back. At anytime the owner will ask for an account of what we’ve done with his possessions: are we using them for what he wants or are we squandering them on ourselves and on ‘wild living’?
I can think of a time when I was a pre-teen and I was in the living room when my dad was watching some telethon to help the needy kids. He was talking to me about it for a while. Trying to instill the values of helping others – or something like that – and then right when they are asking for money –on purpose – he says, "thanks Mike for all the help you’ve given me working around the yard this summer" ...and he gives me five bucks... while he’s picking up the telephone. He says, "now you can spend this on anything you want"…while he dials…"anything at all…Hello telethon"…and he hands me the phone…immediately, I’m thinking about giving the telethon - $2.50 (or less), but I know what my father is saying that I should do with this money.
Are we doing what our Heavenly Father wants with what He gives us? What are we doing with His money, yes, but also – can you teach? Are you teaching others about Jesus? Are you organised? Are you using administration skills for the Kingdom? Are you are social person? Are you telling people about Jesus and visiting them when they are sick? All of this is included in the first question Jesus is addressing with the parable but he doesn’t stop here.
Look at verses 4-7. These are interesting verses for some sure but let’s see what we can make of them, shall we?[3] The manager says to himself, ‘What shall I do now? — I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
So do you see what the manager is doing here? Now this isn’t his money, remember. This is the master’s money – in one way or another[4] – this is the master’s money and the manager’s plan is to give it away; isn’t this what he got in trouble for in the first place – wasting his master’s money? !!!
Now that he is out on his ear, this is the idea, he slashes what people owe his master, and makes a lot of friends in the process. No kidding… can you imagine? And these are not just small personal loans. This is big business, these amounts, by the way. This isn’t just a family operation. Can you imagine if the CEO of RBC –faced sudden death- can you imagine if he just got his pink slip and went out and cancelled everybody’s mortgage or student loans…no kidding people would like him and offer him jobs. Or like a politician, who looks like he’ll lose an election, bails out big business or privatises something. No kidding someone will offer him a job.
But what is Jesus saying here? Is he saying that it is okay to cheat God like the manager cheats the owner? This is another question inherent to the parable…and look at verse 8. When all this happens and the owner potentially loses the equivalent of millions in the process, it says “the master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.” He commended him for wasting his money, which is what he fired him for in the first place. What?!?
So what is Jesus saying? …Is he saying that we can be tricky and waste God’s possessions? Well…no. And this is where the first part of the parable that we spent so much time looking at comes into play. No you cannot waste that which God has given you and Jesus is pretty clear about that. If we can’t be trusted, if we squander what God has given us, we will be fired. We will lose; It is the same as stopping playing hockey in the last minute. We will face sudden death overtime and - if we stop playing - we will lose.
Further if we have any doubts about this, in verses 10-12 Jesus is explicit. There is no ambiguity. He says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Did you get that? Jesus is saying that it is not the untrustworthiness, the shrewdness, the trickiness, that is being applauded in this parable. It is not the fact that he has without permission reduced all these debts for his own personal gain– it is not this that Jesus is applauding. He says so – he says if you are dishonest with a little, you will be dishonest with a lot. And if you do squander -waste the talents God gives you- you will not be eternally employed.
So then, if it is not the manager’s untrustworthiness that is being applauded? Why is the owner happy with the manager who wastes and squanders his things? Is it that he put profit first? He cut a deal with big business to get a new job. Like a corrupt politician about to be kicked out the door selling of a country’s possessions. The manager doesn’t want to do any physical work but he still wants to make big bucks. Is this what the parable is talking about?[5] Is this what is being applauded: planning for his own financial security? [b]
No. Jesus answers this question in verses 13 and 15. He says emphatically, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” ...What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” And Jesus goes even further earlier in Luke when he says (14:33) that one should be willing to give up all one’s possessions to follow him…
So why does he commend the manager? What’s he talking about? Really what is he talking about? He makes it clear that he is NOT saying that we should aim for material gain (v.15) and if we do we are not serving God (v.13) and he is not applauding untrustworthiness for he says clearly that those who are untrustworthy here are not worthy of trust in the Kingdom; so what is Jesus talking about in this parable?
Jesus' point to his disciples in this parable and Jesus' point to us is this, if even the people of this world (v. 8), who are not even wise enough to secure the ‘true riches’ for themselves (v.11), even the wicked people who squander what they are entrusted with on themselves, and don’t use God’s wealth for His purposes (cf. Luke 12:13-21) - even the people of this world are wise enough to prepare for their future when they know it is near (v.8), so should not we, who have been entrusted with so much more –the knowledge of the Kingdom of God – should not we be even more wise than they?
In context this makes sense. The prodigal son comes back. He returns to Father. He comes back to live with God. Sure he strays but he comes back and, like the son, if we stray we can return. We are welcome back and the story of the prodigal makes that clear. But don’t leave it too late.
The story of the manager contains a caution. The manager did not return to doing what was right before it was too late. You see, we are welcome back to spend time with and to do the will of God (cf. Lk 13:22-30; Mat 7:13-14) but we shouldn’t be encouraged to celebrate so much that we stop playing before the game is over (cf. Lk 12:35-41,41-48). Even the untrustworthy manager, when he did finally see the impending future, even the untrustworthy manager, did everything that he could to prepare for it. Do we who have already been entrusted with the riches of the knowledge of God care as much as he about the impending future? how are we doing at managing God’s time, money, and skills that He has given us?
How are we doing? Are we using our gifts for the Kingdom? This is what the Kingdom looks like; this is what it is like when we have returned to the father and when we are trustworthy managers:[6] If our dad gives us five bucks and tells us to give it to Jerry’s kids, we will give it to Jerry’s kids. If our Father lets us have a good job, with good pay, and invites us to give some of that money back, we will give it back. If He gives us the skills to teach Sunday school, fix the church, or nudges us to invite our friends to church, we will do that and more. Then we will avoid being in the same position as the manager. You see, we have already been entrusted with the true riches of the Kingdom. It is not too late.
The third period’s not over. We can play the full game and experience the victory with Jesus. We can. No matter if we’ve already started to squander our lead like the son or the manager, it is not too late yet. We can come back. We can come back. We can return and experience the victory with Jesus, we can. Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. Let's avoid 'sudden death' and build on that lead playing for the Lord.
Amen.
Return to Index
-----------------------------
[1] This is one of the questions that he is answering, for his disciples (cf. Lk 8:8-10; Mt 13:10-17; Mk 4:10-12), I submit, with this parable.
[2] This is not the only place where it can be argued that Jesus answers a parable with a parable. One of Luke’s two references to the parable `hiding your light under a jar` appears to be part of his explanation to his disciples of the parable of the Soils (Luke 8).
[3] The scholars varied opinions are around things such as whether or not the manager was acting honourably or dishonourably here, whether or not this section is making a comment about the character of God, and questions about if the manager's untrustworthiness and love of money were actually rewarded; I argue alongside the majority opinion, based on the larger context as I address later in this sermon, that it is not these things that are being rewarded at all.
[4] R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX: Luke, John, 308-309 has a good discussion of various theories around how the wealth was acquired and why or why not the manager’s actions here are justifiable. This is a contentious issue; I don’t think that it need be however. If even the ‘wicked’ are smart enough to prepare for the future in their wicked ways, how much more should the trustworthy (faithful) (v. 11) prepare for the future and how much more seriously should we take the true riches (v. 12) with which we have been entrusted
[5] Some may suggest that we act this way; you’ve heard the argument that you can only take care of others once you take care of yourself. What good would we be to the poor, if we were broke ourselves?
[6] I have a really good quote to insert here from the Interpretation series. Check back later.
[a] cf. http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#8474403761697437649
[b] cf. http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html#3175897458761777177
[c] cf. Doctrine 9 of the Salvation Army (We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.) ; I am not suggesting here that this theme is the central element of the parable. I am however suggesting that it may be implicit and certainly serves for smooth transition from the preceding parable.
Luke 8:1-18 - The Jesus Show
Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 15 July 2007
and Swift Current Corps, 16 November 2014
by Captain Michael Ramsay
As a family we rent movies from time to time but, as a rule, I don’t watch TV (we don’t even have one accessible right now) – I find that it takes too much time…but ‘in the old days’ I used to love Monty Python's Flying Circus. I don’t know who remembers it but one of the reasons it was neat was because I have heard said that John Clease, one of the main actors, was actually educated as a lawyer and shortly after becoming a lawyer he was offered two jobs – one as a lawyer and one as a comedian / actor. Like all of us, I’m sure [ha, ha, ha], he chose to be an actor - and as a result he reached more people than he ever could as a lawyer and affected them to an even greater extent. You see, in today’s world the media is a significant way to make an impact on the world; John Clease made an impact.
Shows popular these days include Survivor, Big Brother, Great Race, talk shows like Oprah. I must confess that I’ve never even seen an episode of most of them but I still know about them. These shows make an impact. They have elements of reality that our society at large can understand but they are couched in such a way as to make it exciting – either parodies, intensity of settings, or extreme subject matters: it is entertainment for the mass market and -When one does this, one reaches a lot of people, one gains a lot more exposure for oneself, and one’s message. More exposure than one gets from writing for an academic journal or practicing law, for instance.
Now I was thinking of giving you guys another quiz this week – but I think I’ll hold off for a while…but, I’ll ask you what were your favourite classes in school? …Math, English, Art, lunch: things that you love studying in elementary, secondary or post secondary. Shout them out ...
I just recently returned to (and from) school again –training college, the Salvation Army seminary and I had a favourite thing to study: it was systematic, contextual exegesis pertaining specifically to Jesus’ use of rhetoric to affect his listeners concentrating on metaphoric and parabolic language. Anybody else like that…
Anyway it is basically how Jesus speaks to people. Now there is no doubt that Jesus was smart. He is after all the Son of God. Even as a child he is learned enough to discourse (Luke 2:41ff) with the priests in the temple, later of his teaching, etc, he has followers, disciples, of whom he chooses 12 to be apostles (Lk 6:12-14; Mt 10:1-4; Mk 3:13-14). He is also able to hold his own in many debates and conflicts with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Priests – the legal, intellectual, and religious leaders of his day. But here is the thing. He didn’t choose to be a lawyer; he doesn’t choose to be an academic; he doesn’t choose to be a priest. He chooses to reach the mass market instead. Sort of like – I never really though of the comparison before but (in this way) sort of like John Clease.
If you aren’t already looking at Luke, Chapter 8, I invite you to turn to it now.
Now Jesus was very popular and –just like today’s TV shows – he had many regular followers (verse 4). There were many people who would actually follow Jesus around from town to town as he taught. They would be like the regular viewers of THE JESUS SHOW ... with such sensational acts as turning water into wine, feeding the 4 or 5 thousand, healing the lame and casting demons into pigs and much, much more…tune in next week…and he had many regular followers that did: they followed him from town to town. And a good number of them, like it says in verse 2 and 3, were women and they were so devoted that they even provided for him out of their own resources.
Now, Jesus consciously chose not to speak exclusively in the intellectual language of his time and he chose not to appeal directly only to the elite of society. He chose instead to speak in the language that would attract the common people, the mass market. His message, particularly in Luke’s account, as we’ve discussed previously was for the poor, the needy and the oppressed. And for most of its history until (the second temple was destroyed and) the people finally dispersed in 70 AD, this was the bulk of Hebrews, Israelites, and Judeans.
Even though Jesus has a big following, and just like I don’t always understand what is going on in some of these talk shows and reality shows today, people didn’t always get what Jesus was saying and the many of the intellectual big wigs certainly did not even want to understand. If you look at verse 10 with me, Jesus is quoting Isaiah (Isaiah –6:9-10) and it says there that ‘to you (his disciples, the one’s following him – the regular viewers if you like, the one’s who would never miss the JESUS SHOW.) "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that "looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.' Now, there is so much to this verse actually. More than I can possible go into here but suffice it to say for now, that this passage quoted from Isaiah is one of the signs pointing to Jesus as the Christ, The Messiah, the Anointed one of God – and not everyone / not everyone / understands…
Well, so do we understand? What is His point in the Parable of the Soils. What is this great message here that he tells to great crowds that come from (verse 4) town after town. Let’s see if we can figure it out.
First, do you remember taking quizzes in school. –Don’t worry, I’m still not going to give you one- I remember Mrs Randall, though, when I was in grade 6, she would come in with some strange one’s –surprise tests - every once and a while. You could never answer the questions but if you turned to the back of the test there was always an answer key. So I would always just flip to the back and copy out the answers.
Now I don’t really know if that was cheating or not or if we were supposed to do that, but as we go through this parable, we’re going to do the same thing – you see the interpretation of the parable is just over there in verses 11-15 and right of the bat, in verse 11, if you’ll look with me, it records that the seed in this story is the word of God. So let’s take that information back to the parable verses 4-8. Verse 5: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.”
So someone is sowing, planting, teaching the word of God and as he does, some of the seed falls on the path and is trampled on or the birds eat it up. Now this is the picture Jesus is painting - and most people at this time in Palestine, since Israel is an agricultural society, understand this. In first century Palestine, instead of a fence between each field, there is be a narrow well-beaten path, like the one mentioned in the parable; these paths are as hard as pavement;[1] and mark off property lines and sections of land. They are also paths to travel.
The image here is of a person walking along with his bag of seeds and tossing them into his field and some of these seeds inevitably fall onto the trodden path where nothing can grow because it is so hard. It is like today if I were trying to through seeds beside the highway. The ones that landed on the road just would not grow.
So Jesus then is letting us know that even as we are faithful in sowing the seed, sharing the gospel, there are those with whom it just won’t take. We need to sow. We need to sow, (it is part of the great commission Matthew 28:16-20), but there are people who just won’t - for whatever reason - let the seed of the word of God grow.
There can be many different reasons for this, I remember a friend of mine – we’ll call her Melissa – and back in the 1980’s she comes to church with us, she comes to Bible study, she is dating a Christian friend of mine and we tell her and talk to her about Jesus all the time –because that is just what we talk about- but the seed just won’t take. And I know her over many years. Her heart is hard (verse 12) and she does not believe. It is sad but she does not believe. We are faithful in sowing, but she appears hard. We are faithful in sowing but she does not believe.
And that is what Jesus is speaking about here in such a way that those, as it says in Mark’s account (Mark 3), those with ears can hear and the regular viewers of the JESUS SHOW can fully understand the sadness of this. Even as we are faithful, some will not believe. And in order to believe we must have faith and faithfulness (Romans 3).
As the faithful planter plants, as the sower sows, as we share the word of God, there is the next ground upon which the seed falls. Verse 6 says that some seed falls on the rocks. This seed starts out well but it whither and it dies. And verse 7 says that some of the seeds that are faithfully sown – some of the seeds fall among thorns and these thorns choke it out.
Now I was in prison for a couple of years – not as an inmate, praise God - but as a minister and a training college cadet. And I loved it very much and my heart weeps for many of them daily. I love my friends there. I really do. Now I was there regularly and preached a bit there over the years and spent a lot of time at the Penn getting to know the guys.
Sadly some of my friends there appear to be the soil of the rock and soil of the weeds. So often you see people’s lives turning around as they are out to the prison church services three, four, and, if possible, five times a week. So often they start to read the word and ponder things of the Lord. So often the Lord gets a hold of their lives and starts to transform them. So often, the seed starts to GROW! And then so often (vs 12) the devil comes along…but it doesn’t need to be this way.
The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the word of God, the gospel, is good news. It is the power to change and because of that we keep sowing the seeds. We keep sharing the good news. We are faithful and we have faith.
And then there are those who receive will it with joy (verse 13). Like some of my friends that do do really well in prison but they don’t have the foundation, they don’t have the background, they don’t have the roots, and when they leave jail they can’t find a town, a church, a Christian, a single person for support. The seed doesn’t take root in their soil. The Word doesn’t take root in their soul. It doesn’t grow. They believe only for a time and then – they fall away.
But it doesn’t need to be this way. The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the gospel is good news. It is itself (cf Romans 1:17-18) the power to change. So we keep sowing the seeds, we keep sharing the gospel.
But still there are they who are like the plants choked by the weeds; there are other friends of ours, as we are faithful and sharing the word of God to them. As we are faithful in planting and sowing, there are those that seem to have that same enthusiasm. They seem to have that same passion for the Word of God. They seem to have that same passion for Christ but then…it changes.
I think of Russell, a friend of mine from jail. He is a great musician. He plays religiously in the church band at the prison; he is amazing. On the outside he is a professional musician. Upon release, he immediately gets involved in a band again. He does really well too and I don’t see or hear from him for over a year, but then just before I leave to come out here actually I see him again – back in prison. Verse 14: “as for those that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares, and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”
The rocky and thorny soil is very common in Palestine in Jesus’ day and people (as rocky and thorny soil) are very common in Canada in our day. Is there anything choking the word of God out of our life? Luke spends a lot of time in his Gospel addressing the difficulties of wealth (cf. 12:16; 14:12; 16:1, 19; 18:24 21:1). 18:24 says, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” and we all in Canada, no matter how much we think we lack, are among the wealthiest people ever to live on the planet. Is wealth trying to choke us out of the Kingdom?
Jesus speaks about the pursuit of pleasure (17:27; 21:34) and he speaks of worry (10:41; Ch 12): this comes from trying to take responsibility for that which God has control. Is there something else choking the word of God from our life? Is there something that we spend more energy in doing than reading the word? Is there something we spend more time doing than talking with God? Is there? Are there weeds chocking our growth in Christ? It doesn’t need to be this way. The gospel is good news. It is itself, as it says in Romans 1:17-18, it is itself the power to change us.
And change us it does when it takes root. When we resist the devil, he will flee us. The one who perseveres receives the crown of life, which the Lord has promised (James 1:12). We do not need to be as hard as the beaten path and we certainly should never be discouraged from sowing the seed’s of God’s word. Because look – look at verse 8. There is good news.
Verse 8: “Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold." … "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"; about that good soil, verse 15: ... the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance. And how can they not?
Jesus continues[2]…as he explains a parable with a parable, verses 16-18, how could they not: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed. Listen, pay attention, He says.
As we are faithful in sowing the seed of God’s word. It will produce fruit. All of us who are in the Kingdom today are there because the Lord’s seed has grown in our soil; it has grown in our soul. And as it grows more and more we can’t help but sow more seeds of the word of God, It is a natural result of our salvation – no one hides a lamp under a lamp stand.
It is the same with our loved ones. We should not be discouraged as we are faithful in sowing the seeds of the gospel of God’s word; we never know really what kind of soil it is landing on…and when it hits good soil LOOK OUT! When it hits good soil its yield will be – as Mark and Matthew each record - “thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold”[3] :l (Mark 4:20; cf. Matthew 13:23).
Remember Melissa, my friend, the one we talked to for days and years, the one who, for a long time was not receptive to the word, well guess what – the seed grew, The seed grew. She was not the soil of the path after all, she was the good soil. The seed grew and produced its fruit. You see the Lord is good. He does not desire that even one should perish. And in the case of Melissa, as we were led, we planted that seed and, as we were led, we watered it for years with prayer – literally for years -after she told us repeatedly that she did not accept that seed. We prayed, we prayed, watered and we prayed, and the Lord remembered Melissa. He heard our prayers and she is in the Kingdom tonight.
Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. And I have that same faith for my friends in and out of jail and I have that same faith for any of you here today and I have that same faith for any of your friends and loved ones here today.
Halleluiah. Praise the Lord and let’s continue watering those seeds in prayer shall we.
Return to Index
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[1] William Barkley, And Jesus Said. (Edinburgh, UK: The Saint Andrew Press, 1972), 18.
[2] The parable of the lamp under the jar follows immediately after this parable is explained; the further parable is I believe a part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the soils, for Luke provides no textual indicators for a topical shift in the material of 8:4-21; it is one pericope. cf. Joel B Green, The Gospel of Luke (TNICNT 3: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 315; and R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke (NIB 9: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1995), 180.
[3] Matthew lists them in a descending order rather than Mark’s ascending order.
and Swift Current Corps, 16 November 2014
by Captain Michael Ramsay
As a family we rent movies from time to time but, as a rule, I don’t watch TV (we don’t even have one accessible right now) – I find that it takes too much time…but ‘in the old days’ I used to love Monty Python's Flying Circus. I don’t know who remembers it but one of the reasons it was neat was because I have heard said that John Clease, one of the main actors, was actually educated as a lawyer and shortly after becoming a lawyer he was offered two jobs – one as a lawyer and one as a comedian / actor. Like all of us, I’m sure [ha, ha, ha], he chose to be an actor - and as a result he reached more people than he ever could as a lawyer and affected them to an even greater extent. You see, in today’s world the media is a significant way to make an impact on the world; John Clease made an impact.
Shows popular these days include Survivor, Big Brother, Great Race, talk shows like Oprah. I must confess that I’ve never even seen an episode of most of them but I still know about them. These shows make an impact. They have elements of reality that our society at large can understand but they are couched in such a way as to make it exciting – either parodies, intensity of settings, or extreme subject matters: it is entertainment for the mass market and -When one does this, one reaches a lot of people, one gains a lot more exposure for oneself, and one’s message. More exposure than one gets from writing for an academic journal or practicing law, for instance.
Now I was thinking of giving you guys another quiz this week – but I think I’ll hold off for a while…but, I’ll ask you what were your favourite classes in school? …Math, English, Art, lunch: things that you love studying in elementary, secondary or post secondary. Shout them out ...
I just recently returned to (and from) school again –training college, the Salvation Army seminary and I had a favourite thing to study: it was systematic, contextual exegesis pertaining specifically to Jesus’ use of rhetoric to affect his listeners concentrating on metaphoric and parabolic language. Anybody else like that…
Anyway it is basically how Jesus speaks to people. Now there is no doubt that Jesus was smart. He is after all the Son of God. Even as a child he is learned enough to discourse (Luke 2:41ff) with the priests in the temple, later of his teaching, etc, he has followers, disciples, of whom he chooses 12 to be apostles (Lk 6:12-14; Mt 10:1-4; Mk 3:13-14). He is also able to hold his own in many debates and conflicts with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Priests – the legal, intellectual, and religious leaders of his day. But here is the thing. He didn’t choose to be a lawyer; he doesn’t choose to be an academic; he doesn’t choose to be a priest. He chooses to reach the mass market instead. Sort of like – I never really though of the comparison before but (in this way) sort of like John Clease.
If you aren’t already looking at Luke, Chapter 8, I invite you to turn to it now.
Now Jesus was very popular and –just like today’s TV shows – he had many regular followers (verse 4). There were many people who would actually follow Jesus around from town to town as he taught. They would be like the regular viewers of THE JESUS SHOW ... with such sensational acts as turning water into wine, feeding the 4 or 5 thousand, healing the lame and casting demons into pigs and much, much more…tune in next week…and he had many regular followers that did: they followed him from town to town. And a good number of them, like it says in verse 2 and 3, were women and they were so devoted that they even provided for him out of their own resources.
Now, Jesus consciously chose not to speak exclusively in the intellectual language of his time and he chose not to appeal directly only to the elite of society. He chose instead to speak in the language that would attract the common people, the mass market. His message, particularly in Luke’s account, as we’ve discussed previously was for the poor, the needy and the oppressed. And for most of its history until (the second temple was destroyed and) the people finally dispersed in 70 AD, this was the bulk of Hebrews, Israelites, and Judeans.
Even though Jesus has a big following, and just like I don’t always understand what is going on in some of these talk shows and reality shows today, people didn’t always get what Jesus was saying and the many of the intellectual big wigs certainly did not even want to understand. If you look at verse 10 with me, Jesus is quoting Isaiah (Isaiah –6:9-10) and it says there that ‘to you (his disciples, the one’s following him – the regular viewers if you like, the one’s who would never miss the JESUS SHOW.) "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that "looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.' Now, there is so much to this verse actually. More than I can possible go into here but suffice it to say for now, that this passage quoted from Isaiah is one of the signs pointing to Jesus as the Christ, The Messiah, the Anointed one of God – and not everyone / not everyone / understands…
Well, so do we understand? What is His point in the Parable of the Soils. What is this great message here that he tells to great crowds that come from (verse 4) town after town. Let’s see if we can figure it out.
First, do you remember taking quizzes in school. –Don’t worry, I’m still not going to give you one- I remember Mrs Randall, though, when I was in grade 6, she would come in with some strange one’s –surprise tests - every once and a while. You could never answer the questions but if you turned to the back of the test there was always an answer key. So I would always just flip to the back and copy out the answers.
Now I don’t really know if that was cheating or not or if we were supposed to do that, but as we go through this parable, we’re going to do the same thing – you see the interpretation of the parable is just over there in verses 11-15 and right of the bat, in verse 11, if you’ll look with me, it records that the seed in this story is the word of God. So let’s take that information back to the parable verses 4-8. Verse 5: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.”
So someone is sowing, planting, teaching the word of God and as he does, some of the seed falls on the path and is trampled on or the birds eat it up. Now this is the picture Jesus is painting - and most people at this time in Palestine, since Israel is an agricultural society, understand this. In first century Palestine, instead of a fence between each field, there is be a narrow well-beaten path, like the one mentioned in the parable; these paths are as hard as pavement;[1] and mark off property lines and sections of land. They are also paths to travel.
The image here is of a person walking along with his bag of seeds and tossing them into his field and some of these seeds inevitably fall onto the trodden path where nothing can grow because it is so hard. It is like today if I were trying to through seeds beside the highway. The ones that landed on the road just would not grow.
So Jesus then is letting us know that even as we are faithful in sowing the seed, sharing the gospel, there are those with whom it just won’t take. We need to sow. We need to sow, (it is part of the great commission Matthew 28:16-20), but there are people who just won’t - for whatever reason - let the seed of the word of God grow.
There can be many different reasons for this, I remember a friend of mine – we’ll call her Melissa – and back in the 1980’s she comes to church with us, she comes to Bible study, she is dating a Christian friend of mine and we tell her and talk to her about Jesus all the time –because that is just what we talk about- but the seed just won’t take. And I know her over many years. Her heart is hard (verse 12) and she does not believe. It is sad but she does not believe. We are faithful in sowing, but she appears hard. We are faithful in sowing but she does not believe.
And that is what Jesus is speaking about here in such a way that those, as it says in Mark’s account (Mark 3), those with ears can hear and the regular viewers of the JESUS SHOW can fully understand the sadness of this. Even as we are faithful, some will not believe. And in order to believe we must have faith and faithfulness (Romans 3).
As the faithful planter plants, as the sower sows, as we share the word of God, there is the next ground upon which the seed falls. Verse 6 says that some seed falls on the rocks. This seed starts out well but it whither and it dies. And verse 7 says that some of the seeds that are faithfully sown – some of the seeds fall among thorns and these thorns choke it out.
Now I was in prison for a couple of years – not as an inmate, praise God - but as a minister and a training college cadet. And I loved it very much and my heart weeps for many of them daily. I love my friends there. I really do. Now I was there regularly and preached a bit there over the years and spent a lot of time at the Penn getting to know the guys.
Sadly some of my friends there appear to be the soil of the rock and soil of the weeds. So often you see people’s lives turning around as they are out to the prison church services three, four, and, if possible, five times a week. So often they start to read the word and ponder things of the Lord. So often the Lord gets a hold of their lives and starts to transform them. So often, the seed starts to GROW! And then so often (vs 12) the devil comes along…but it doesn’t need to be this way.
The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the word of God, the gospel, is good news. It is the power to change and because of that we keep sowing the seeds. We keep sharing the good news. We are faithful and we have faith.
And then there are those who receive will it with joy (verse 13). Like some of my friends that do do really well in prison but they don’t have the foundation, they don’t have the background, they don’t have the roots, and when they leave jail they can’t find a town, a church, a Christian, a single person for support. The seed doesn’t take root in their soil. The Word doesn’t take root in their soul. It doesn’t grow. They believe only for a time and then – they fall away.
But it doesn’t need to be this way. The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the gospel is good news. It is itself (cf Romans 1:17-18) the power to change. So we keep sowing the seeds, we keep sharing the gospel.
But still there are they who are like the plants choked by the weeds; there are other friends of ours, as we are faithful and sharing the word of God to them. As we are faithful in planting and sowing, there are those that seem to have that same enthusiasm. They seem to have that same passion for the Word of God. They seem to have that same passion for Christ but then…it changes.
I think of Russell, a friend of mine from jail. He is a great musician. He plays religiously in the church band at the prison; he is amazing. On the outside he is a professional musician. Upon release, he immediately gets involved in a band again. He does really well too and I don’t see or hear from him for over a year, but then just before I leave to come out here actually I see him again – back in prison. Verse 14: “as for those that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares, and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.”
The rocky and thorny soil is very common in Palestine in Jesus’ day and people (as rocky and thorny soil) are very common in Canada in our day. Is there anything choking the word of God out of our life? Luke spends a lot of time in his Gospel addressing the difficulties of wealth (cf. 12:16; 14:12; 16:1, 19; 18:24 21:1). 18:24 says, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” and we all in Canada, no matter how much we think we lack, are among the wealthiest people ever to live on the planet. Is wealth trying to choke us out of the Kingdom?
Jesus speaks about the pursuit of pleasure (17:27; 21:34) and he speaks of worry (10:41; Ch 12): this comes from trying to take responsibility for that which God has control. Is there something else choking the word of God from our life? Is there something that we spend more energy in doing than reading the word? Is there something we spend more time doing than talking with God? Is there? Are there weeds chocking our growth in Christ? It doesn’t need to be this way. The gospel is good news. It is itself, as it says in Romans 1:17-18, it is itself the power to change us.
And change us it does when it takes root. When we resist the devil, he will flee us. The one who perseveres receives the crown of life, which the Lord has promised (James 1:12). We do not need to be as hard as the beaten path and we certainly should never be discouraged from sowing the seed’s of God’s word. Because look – look at verse 8. There is good news.
Verse 8: “Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold." … "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"; about that good soil, verse 15: ... the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance. And how can they not?
Jesus continues[2]…as he explains a parable with a parable, verses 16-18, how could they not: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed. Listen, pay attention, He says.
As we are faithful in sowing the seed of God’s word. It will produce fruit. All of us who are in the Kingdom today are there because the Lord’s seed has grown in our soil; it has grown in our soul. And as it grows more and more we can’t help but sow more seeds of the word of God, It is a natural result of our salvation – no one hides a lamp under a lamp stand.
It is the same with our loved ones. We should not be discouraged as we are faithful in sowing the seeds of the gospel of God’s word; we never know really what kind of soil it is landing on…and when it hits good soil LOOK OUT! When it hits good soil its yield will be – as Mark and Matthew each record - “thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold”[3] :l (Mark 4:20; cf. Matthew 13:23).
Remember Melissa, my friend, the one we talked to for days and years, the one who, for a long time was not receptive to the word, well guess what – the seed grew, The seed grew. She was not the soil of the path after all, she was the good soil. The seed grew and produced its fruit. You see the Lord is good. He does not desire that even one should perish. And in the case of Melissa, as we were led, we planted that seed and, as we were led, we watered it for years with prayer – literally for years -after she told us repeatedly that she did not accept that seed. We prayed, we prayed, watered and we prayed, and the Lord remembered Melissa. He heard our prayers and she is in the Kingdom tonight.
Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. And I have that same faith for my friends in and out of jail and I have that same faith for any of you here today and I have that same faith for any of your friends and loved ones here today.
Halleluiah. Praise the Lord and let’s continue watering those seeds in prayer shall we.
Return to Index
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[1] William Barkley, And Jesus Said. (Edinburgh, UK: The Saint Andrew Press, 1972), 18.
[2] The parable of the lamp under the jar follows immediately after this parable is explained; the further parable is I believe a part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the soils, for Luke provides no textual indicators for a topical shift in the material of 8:4-21; it is one pericope. cf. Joel B Green, The Gospel of Luke (TNICNT 3: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 315; and R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke (NIB 9: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1995), 180.
[3] Matthew lists them in a descending order rather than Mark’s ascending order.
Psalm 72: the Credit Card of Justice and Righteousness
Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 01 July 2007
Presented to Swift Current Corps 30 July 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I love Canada Day – (or Dominion Day as we used to call it) – I always have. I love the picnics and all the fun things to do. Every year we used to have a big picnic and fireworks in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria where I grew up. It is a perfect chance to see everyone – so I’m really looking forward to our picnic today in the park – this should be great.
But you know what else I love, I also love the quizzes that come out around this time – I know, who loves quizzes but, hey, I used to be a teacher– lets see how you do…
Who is our head of State?
What is our national animal?
What are our two national sports?
Who was the first PM of Canada?
When did Saskatchewan join confederation?
Upon what passage of scripture was Canada founded?
And that is another reason that I love it is that Canada Day it is a great chance to reflect upon the theological roots on which Canada was founded. Canada Day provides an opportunity to look at how the Lord formed and intended our nation.
Canada, unlike many countries who came into their own around the same time as us, was not born out of the atheist revolutions of the 1700s. If anything our forefathers went exactly the other way and decided to take a stand in FOR God, FOR King, and FOR country. So, instead of focusing on individualistic liberty and the selfish pursuits of personal happiness at the expense of others, the Canadian fathers of confederation focused on peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), order (God is a God of order not disorder), and good government (cf. Isa. 9:5-7, Ps. 72).
Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, through the Canadian government, shall have dominion from sea to sea.
This is neat. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country is intentionally founded on the Word of God. And another interesting thing - Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, the father of Confederation that proposed the name for our country and its name, as the Dominion of Canada, be based on this Scripture would have made a great Salvationist.
He wasn’t one but he would have made a good one. Tilley was a Sunday-school teacher and lifelong temperance advocate; he was one of the so-called "Smashers", who tried to introduce prohibition to New Brunswick in the 1850s.
Now, a reason that I mention this and one key reason that all this is important for us today is that Psalm 72 is part of our foundation and one’s foundation is very important (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49). This is true both individually and as a country. Being that it is Canada Day today, I thought that it would be a great time to look at the foundation that this country was built upon.
Let’s take a look at part of our foundation. Let’s take a look at Psalm 72.
Psalm 72 is an old Psalm. It was written somewhere around 3000 years ago probably by or for King Solomon near the beginning of his reign. In it, there are a lot of blessings that Solomon has to look forward to and a lot that we as inheritors of this foundation have to look forward to as well.
It is notable that right away in verses 1 and 2 where the psalmist asks God to “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”
Now about Wisdom and Justice…Do you remember the famous story at the beginning of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 3) where he prays for God’s wisdom? God tells him he can ask for whatever he wants. He could of asked for all the money and power in the world but he prays for God’s wisdom to discern between good and evil.
This pleases God so much that he also offers him riches and honour and, if he continues to be righteous, a long life. Now this is important because the wisdom is God’s, not man’s. And this story is very likely in the mind of the psalmist as the stage is nicely set for the rest of the Psalm. The King must rely on God’s justice and enact God’s righteousness (NIB McCann Jr. 963).
It is sort of like us. When I was younger, one of my jobs was to be the purchaser for CPCI – my job was to buy things for the college. Like Solomon, I was given a lot of responsibility. I headed out with a blank cheque or a credit card and could purchase whatever I discerned was needed. However the money was not mine so if I failed to use it properly or, say, just bought things for myself, well, the school wouldn’t benefit at all, the students wouldn’t benefit at all, the teachers wouldn’t benefit at all and my boss would stop signing blank cheques or giving me her company credit card.
This company credit card is very similar to what Solomon has received here and he’s been given the card to purchase (vs. 1&2) righteousness and justice, for the poor, on behalf of God.
And as he purchases with the credit card of God’s wisdom, look at all the blessings he and Israel will receive…as he defends the cause of the poor, delivers the needy and crushes their oppressors (verse 4). The mountains themselves will yield prosperity (vs. 3), his heirs will sit on the throne forever (vs. 5) and righteousness will flourish and (Shalom) peace will abound continuing until EVEN the moon is no more. (This is quite a credit card!)
His dominion, as a vassal of the Lord, will be to the end of the earth (v. 8), his enemies will be powerless – all nations will submit to him and even bring him tribute (v. 9-11) as he uses his credit card of wisdom for God and His people. This is quite a blessing for Solomon and as Canada has been founded on this, I submit, for us as well.
So Solomon is given this credit card of wisdom – and, verses 1 and 2 again, what he is to purchase with it? Righteousness and justice for the poor, right? Deliverance to the needy and protection from their oppressor (vv. 4, 12) pity on the week and the needy (v.13) Mercy as he protects even the least in society from their persecutors…and then he will live (v 5) as long as there is a sun and a moon.
Today, as inheritors of this promise, we can reap these benefits as well as we defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy and defeat their oppressors.
But does Solomon reap these benefits? How does Solomon do with this responsibility? When he is young, Solomon begins to work on the temple in Jerusalem so that people can come from all over Israel to worship God in this magnificent structure. It is gigantic but interestingly – Solomon makes his own house even bigger.
And instead of looking out for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed, he divides the historical tribes of Israel and makes slaves of his own people so that he can do all this building. // Well he makes slaves of everyone in the country EXCEPT the ones from his home province. He doesn’t make the people from Judah, his own tribe, do any of the work. Right, that would be like Harper saying everyone starting tomorrow must spend two years doing hard labour – except Toronto, Ontario, where he was born – and you in Saskatchewan or wherever, you must make up the difference.
He promotes the worship of other gods and Solomon even disobeys the command from God not to get horses from Egypt and in all likelihood he uses these as weapons of war against his own people.
Solomon did not make wise purchases with God’s wisdom and, 1 Kings 11:6 says, “he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.”
1 Kings 11:9 says, “The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD… So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees… I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you.” King Solomon did not ‘defend the cause of the poor of the people, deliver the needy, and crush the oppressor’ and the united Kingdom of Israel died with him.
So what about Canada? We have the example of King Solomon who started out with such a promise as his was…and we saw how (according to the 1 Kings account) he squandered his wisdom. How have we done at building upon a basis of God’s righteousness and purchasing with God’s wisdom so that our dominion can continue from sea to sea?
Honestly, we’ve had some problems in the last couple of years, it has been reported that immigration officials have kicked down the doors of the poor and the alien, we have been implicated in international war crimes in Somalia and elsewhere, there are more homeless than recorded previously in this country and many politicians of every political stripe SEEM to be calling for more tax cuts in this day and age - and taxes of course are a primary way that God uses the resources of the country to look after the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
Also in the news in the last few years there have been more stories of school bullying and parents and kids just standing by and letting the needy be oppressed. I was just reading in the Winnipeg Free Press the other day, that the vast majority of us – the average person is willing to cheat on our taxes, not tell the clerk if she gives us too much change, lie, cheat, or steal, if we don’t think we’ll be caught. In doing so, we are not serving God and we are putting ourselves before the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Remember back in 1 Kings right after Solomon prays for wisdom, when he is told he can ask for anything is the world. The Lord is pleased and gives Solomon so much more and immediately after Solomon receives the Lord’s wisdom, is the story of the two prostitutes and the child. (1 Kings 3)
The two of them show up each claiming to be the mother of the same small child. It appears that both had just had a baby and one of the children dies. Right? When the mom whose child dies notices this, she switches the dead child with the live one, hoping to fool the other mom. These two prostitutes then appear before the king, the wronged one looking for God’s righteous judgement.
Do you remember what Solomon says when the women show up to fight about who gets the live child? – he says --- cut the child in two then they can each have half --- (of a dead child) --- of course God’s wisdom is shown as the real mother screams and begs for the life of her child, even willing to give him up to the other lady. She shows that she is his mother. And Solomon shows that he is purchasing well with God’s wisdom for the needy by then giving her the child.
Solomon starts out well purchasing with the credit card of God’s wisdom but he strays. Solomon may have failed to live up to his promise but God does not. A descendant of David and Solomon sits on the throne today and that descendant is Jesus Christ.
Canada today, yes, has some struggles but there is good news. And the good news stems from the fact that there is that descendant of Solomon – Jesus – is sitting on the throne today.
You see, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the King. He is the one who paid in full for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed. He is the one who purchased righteousness on the cross. Therefore, there is no longer any need for people to suffer from poverty, neediness, war and oppression. Jesus has already purchased righteousness for the whole world. When he died, he made atonement for all of our sins.
And this is important as far as our practical salvation is concerned as well: there are well over 100 times the resources needed to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone in -not only Canada- but in the whole world. God has already provided, we just need to distribute his provision, he has already purchased justice and righteousness on the cross. We just need to distribute that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
Well, it’s Canada Day, so now is as good a time as any to evaluate…how have we been doing with that? Well of course there is always more we can do but - I submit that we haven’t actually done that poorly. And the Lord has used many different people to enable us to obey Him in this way. And some of the people that the Lord has used have come not only out of traditions similar to our own Salvation Army, like Lord Tilley, but right out of our own province – I say own, I’ve only been here for less than a week – Our motto, reflecting this psalm, Psalm 72, first appeared officially on the legislative buildings in Saskatchewan[4] over 100 years ago when Walter Scott was premier.
In our earliest days as people were being persecuted in the US and were being tortured and killed by being dipped in boiling tar and then covered with feathers, God provided refuge for his suffering people, here in Canada.
Later, When the slaves oppressed by the US had to flee for their lives. Canada was a place to which the Lord took them via the underground RR.
The Christian Reverends JS Woodsworth (of Manitoba) and Tommy Douglas (Premier of Saskatchewan from 44-61) intentionally sought to bring about peace and justice through distributing the Lord’s provision for HIS poor and the needy. Woodworth and MacKenzie King were used by the LORD to provide for HIS poor, the powerless, and the elderly, through the old age pension plan.
God also, in Saskatchewan, introduced a bill of rights to protect people from (not only the government) but also from oppression by the rich and the powerful people in our society. This was before even the UN even sought to set its efforts this way.
God used Tommy Douglas, who after having almost lost his own leg because his family was too poor to pay for surgery, to make it possible for the poor and the needy to receive the same justice as the wealthy right here in Saskatchewan in the area of medicine. Medicare was enacted here under Premier Woodrow Low in 1962 and in all of Canada through Lester B. Pearson in 1966.
Historically, I submit, as Jesus purchased righteousness and justice on the cross, we have been faithful to distribute it. We have been used to deliver HIS righteous decisions and justice for HIS poor. HIS deliverance to HIS needy and protection from their oppressors (vss. 4, 12) has been offered through us, both internally and abroad. We have shown HIS pity on the weak and the needy (vs. 13). We have shown HIS mercy and protect even the least in society from their persecutors…we have. We do!
And as we have, we have been blessed. By the 1960s, we had been blessed with a Shalom (vv. 3,7), a peace, like no nation on earth ever has. We became known not as a nation of pacifists but as a nation of peacemakers and peacekeepers. From the 1960 through to the mid-1990s not only did we argue for peace but we sent our brave soldiers overseas to stand between powerful warring nations with legitimate grievances and the Lord blessed us abundantly. We are even equipping our forces today and sacrificing our soldiers so that maybe in the future we again may be used in this same role.
This is our heritage. This is our foundation. This is a reflection of Jesus, himself, the rock upon which we stand. This is what our Fathers of Confederation said that Canada stands for…the poor, the widow, the immigrant AND WHY, why, why have we founded the nation upon this scripture… because people were created by God; to serve God.
And we must serve God. You and I, as heirs to the promise of Psalm 72; you and I, as servants of the King of Kings; You and I, as we love our neighbour as ourselves, we must continue to build upon our great heritage of distributing that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
So I ask today who will stand with me on our foundation that the Lord has lain in this country? Who? If you will commit to stand up for and pray for the poor, stand with me. If you will commit to stand with and pray for the needy, stand with me now. If you commit to stand up for and pray for the oppressed, stand with us now. If you commit to pray for our leaders so that the Lord may have dominion in this country FROM SEA TO SEA, stand with us now. Happy Canada Day! Halleluiah! Let’s build on our foundation. Let’s live up to our heritage.
You know where we get the power…(Song: Wonderworking Power)
Benediction:
The Lord has provided, (vss 18-19) “blessed be the lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”
---------------------------------
[4] http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/arm2_e.cfm
Presented to Swift Current Corps 30 July 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I love Canada Day – (or Dominion Day as we used to call it) – I always have. I love the picnics and all the fun things to do. Every year we used to have a big picnic and fireworks in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria where I grew up. It is a perfect chance to see everyone – so I’m really looking forward to our picnic today in the park – this should be great.
But you know what else I love, I also love the quizzes that come out around this time – I know, who loves quizzes but, hey, I used to be a teacher– lets see how you do…
Who is our head of State?
What is our national animal?
What are our two national sports?
Who was the first PM of Canada?
When did Saskatchewan join confederation?
Upon what passage of scripture was Canada founded?
And that is another reason that I love it is that Canada Day it is a great chance to reflect upon the theological roots on which Canada was founded. Canada Day provides an opportunity to look at how the Lord formed and intended our nation.
Canada, unlike many countries who came into their own around the same time as us, was not born out of the atheist revolutions of the 1700s. If anything our forefathers went exactly the other way and decided to take a stand in FOR God, FOR King, and FOR country. So, instead of focusing on individualistic liberty and the selfish pursuits of personal happiness at the expense of others, the Canadian fathers of confederation focused on peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), order (God is a God of order not disorder), and good government (cf. Isa. 9:5-7, Ps. 72).
Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, through the Canadian government, shall have dominion from sea to sea.
This is neat. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country is intentionally founded on the Word of God. And another interesting thing - Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, the father of Confederation that proposed the name for our country and its name, as the Dominion of Canada, be based on this Scripture would have made a great Salvationist.
He wasn’t one but he would have made a good one. Tilley was a Sunday-school teacher and lifelong temperance advocate; he was one of the so-called "Smashers", who tried to introduce prohibition to New Brunswick in the 1850s.
Now, a reason that I mention this and one key reason that all this is important for us today is that Psalm 72 is part of our foundation and one’s foundation is very important (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49). This is true both individually and as a country. Being that it is Canada Day today, I thought that it would be a great time to look at the foundation that this country was built upon.
Let’s take a look at part of our foundation. Let’s take a look at Psalm 72.
Psalm 72 is an old Psalm. It was written somewhere around 3000 years ago probably by or for King Solomon near the beginning of his reign. In it, there are a lot of blessings that Solomon has to look forward to and a lot that we as inheritors of this foundation have to look forward to as well.
It is notable that right away in verses 1 and 2 where the psalmist asks God to “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.”
Now about Wisdom and Justice…Do you remember the famous story at the beginning of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 3) where he prays for God’s wisdom? God tells him he can ask for whatever he wants. He could of asked for all the money and power in the world but he prays for God’s wisdom to discern between good and evil.
This pleases God so much that he also offers him riches and honour and, if he continues to be righteous, a long life. Now this is important because the wisdom is God’s, not man’s. And this story is very likely in the mind of the psalmist as the stage is nicely set for the rest of the Psalm. The King must rely on God’s justice and enact God’s righteousness (NIB McCann Jr. 963).
It is sort of like us. When I was younger, one of my jobs was to be the purchaser for CPCI – my job was to buy things for the college. Like Solomon, I was given a lot of responsibility. I headed out with a blank cheque or a credit card and could purchase whatever I discerned was needed. However the money was not mine so if I failed to use it properly or, say, just bought things for myself, well, the school wouldn’t benefit at all, the students wouldn’t benefit at all, the teachers wouldn’t benefit at all and my boss would stop signing blank cheques or giving me her company credit card.
This company credit card is very similar to what Solomon has received here and he’s been given the card to purchase (vs. 1&2) righteousness and justice, for the poor, on behalf of God.
And as he purchases with the credit card of God’s wisdom, look at all the blessings he and Israel will receive…as he defends the cause of the poor, delivers the needy and crushes their oppressors (verse 4). The mountains themselves will yield prosperity (vs. 3), his heirs will sit on the throne forever (vs. 5) and righteousness will flourish and (Shalom) peace will abound continuing until EVEN the moon is no more. (This is quite a credit card!)
His dominion, as a vassal of the Lord, will be to the end of the earth (v. 8), his enemies will be powerless – all nations will submit to him and even bring him tribute (v. 9-11) as he uses his credit card of wisdom for God and His people. This is quite a blessing for Solomon and as Canada has been founded on this, I submit, for us as well.
So Solomon is given this credit card of wisdom – and, verses 1 and 2 again, what he is to purchase with it? Righteousness and justice for the poor, right? Deliverance to the needy and protection from their oppressor (vv. 4, 12) pity on the week and the needy (v.13) Mercy as he protects even the least in society from their persecutors…and then he will live (v 5) as long as there is a sun and a moon.
Today, as inheritors of this promise, we can reap these benefits as well as we defend the cause of the poor, deliver the needy and defeat their oppressors.
But does Solomon reap these benefits? How does Solomon do with this responsibility? When he is young, Solomon begins to work on the temple in Jerusalem so that people can come from all over Israel to worship God in this magnificent structure. It is gigantic but interestingly – Solomon makes his own house even bigger.
And instead of looking out for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed, he divides the historical tribes of Israel and makes slaves of his own people so that he can do all this building. // Well he makes slaves of everyone in the country EXCEPT the ones from his home province. He doesn’t make the people from Judah, his own tribe, do any of the work. Right, that would be like Harper saying everyone starting tomorrow must spend two years doing hard labour – except Toronto, Ontario, where he was born – and you in Saskatchewan or wherever, you must make up the difference.
He promotes the worship of other gods and Solomon even disobeys the command from God not to get horses from Egypt and in all likelihood he uses these as weapons of war against his own people.
Solomon did not make wise purchases with God’s wisdom and, 1 Kings 11:6 says, “he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.”
1 Kings 11:9 says, “The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD… So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees… I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you.” King Solomon did not ‘defend the cause of the poor of the people, deliver the needy, and crush the oppressor’ and the united Kingdom of Israel died with him.
So what about Canada? We have the example of King Solomon who started out with such a promise as his was…and we saw how (according to the 1 Kings account) he squandered his wisdom. How have we done at building upon a basis of God’s righteousness and purchasing with God’s wisdom so that our dominion can continue from sea to sea?
Honestly, we’ve had some problems in the last couple of years, it has been reported that immigration officials have kicked down the doors of the poor and the alien, we have been implicated in international war crimes in Somalia and elsewhere, there are more homeless than recorded previously in this country and many politicians of every political stripe SEEM to be calling for more tax cuts in this day and age - and taxes of course are a primary way that God uses the resources of the country to look after the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
Also in the news in the last few years there have been more stories of school bullying and parents and kids just standing by and letting the needy be oppressed. I was just reading in the Winnipeg Free Press the other day, that the vast majority of us – the average person is willing to cheat on our taxes, not tell the clerk if she gives us too much change, lie, cheat, or steal, if we don’t think we’ll be caught. In doing so, we are not serving God and we are putting ourselves before the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Remember back in 1 Kings right after Solomon prays for wisdom, when he is told he can ask for anything is the world. The Lord is pleased and gives Solomon so much more and immediately after Solomon receives the Lord’s wisdom, is the story of the two prostitutes and the child. (1 Kings 3)
The two of them show up each claiming to be the mother of the same small child. It appears that both had just had a baby and one of the children dies. Right? When the mom whose child dies notices this, she switches the dead child with the live one, hoping to fool the other mom. These two prostitutes then appear before the king, the wronged one looking for God’s righteous judgement.
Do you remember what Solomon says when the women show up to fight about who gets the live child? – he says --- cut the child in two then they can each have half --- (of a dead child) --- of course God’s wisdom is shown as the real mother screams and begs for the life of her child, even willing to give him up to the other lady. She shows that she is his mother. And Solomon shows that he is purchasing well with God’s wisdom for the needy by then giving her the child.
Solomon starts out well purchasing with the credit card of God’s wisdom but he strays. Solomon may have failed to live up to his promise but God does not. A descendant of David and Solomon sits on the throne today and that descendant is Jesus Christ.
Canada today, yes, has some struggles but there is good news. And the good news stems from the fact that there is that descendant of Solomon – Jesus – is sitting on the throne today.
You see, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the King. He is the one who paid in full for the poor, the needy, and the oppressed. He is the one who purchased righteousness on the cross. Therefore, there is no longer any need for people to suffer from poverty, neediness, war and oppression. Jesus has already purchased righteousness for the whole world. When he died, he made atonement for all of our sins.
And this is important as far as our practical salvation is concerned as well: there are well over 100 times the resources needed to feed, clothe, and shelter everyone in -not only Canada- but in the whole world. God has already provided, we just need to distribute his provision, he has already purchased justice and righteousness on the cross. We just need to distribute that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
Well, it’s Canada Day, so now is as good a time as any to evaluate…how have we been doing with that? Well of course there is always more we can do but - I submit that we haven’t actually done that poorly. And the Lord has used many different people to enable us to obey Him in this way. And some of the people that the Lord has used have come not only out of traditions similar to our own Salvation Army, like Lord Tilley, but right out of our own province – I say own, I’ve only been here for less than a week – Our motto, reflecting this psalm, Psalm 72, first appeared officially on the legislative buildings in Saskatchewan[4] over 100 years ago when Walter Scott was premier.
In our earliest days as people were being persecuted in the US and were being tortured and killed by being dipped in boiling tar and then covered with feathers, God provided refuge for his suffering people, here in Canada.
Later, When the slaves oppressed by the US had to flee for their lives. Canada was a place to which the Lord took them via the underground RR.
The Christian Reverends JS Woodsworth (of Manitoba) and Tommy Douglas (Premier of Saskatchewan from 44-61) intentionally sought to bring about peace and justice through distributing the Lord’s provision for HIS poor and the needy. Woodworth and MacKenzie King were used by the LORD to provide for HIS poor, the powerless, and the elderly, through the old age pension plan.
God also, in Saskatchewan, introduced a bill of rights to protect people from (not only the government) but also from oppression by the rich and the powerful people in our society. This was before even the UN even sought to set its efforts this way.
God used Tommy Douglas, who after having almost lost his own leg because his family was too poor to pay for surgery, to make it possible for the poor and the needy to receive the same justice as the wealthy right here in Saskatchewan in the area of medicine. Medicare was enacted here under Premier Woodrow Low in 1962 and in all of Canada through Lester B. Pearson in 1966.
Historically, I submit, as Jesus purchased righteousness and justice on the cross, we have been faithful to distribute it. We have been used to deliver HIS righteous decisions and justice for HIS poor. HIS deliverance to HIS needy and protection from their oppressors (vss. 4, 12) has been offered through us, both internally and abroad. We have shown HIS pity on the weak and the needy (vs. 13). We have shown HIS mercy and protect even the least in society from their persecutors…we have. We do!
And as we have, we have been blessed. By the 1960s, we had been blessed with a Shalom (vv. 3,7), a peace, like no nation on earth ever has. We became known not as a nation of pacifists but as a nation of peacemakers and peacekeepers. From the 1960 through to the mid-1990s not only did we argue for peace but we sent our brave soldiers overseas to stand between powerful warring nations with legitimate grievances and the Lord blessed us abundantly. We are even equipping our forces today and sacrificing our soldiers so that maybe in the future we again may be used in this same role.
This is our heritage. This is our foundation. This is a reflection of Jesus, himself, the rock upon which we stand. This is what our Fathers of Confederation said that Canada stands for…the poor, the widow, the immigrant AND WHY, why, why have we founded the nation upon this scripture… because people were created by God; to serve God.
And we must serve God. You and I, as heirs to the promise of Psalm 72; you and I, as servants of the King of Kings; You and I, as we love our neighbour as ourselves, we must continue to build upon our great heritage of distributing that justice and righteousness to the poor, the needy, and the oppressed.
So I ask today who will stand with me on our foundation that the Lord has lain in this country? Who? If you will commit to stand up for and pray for the poor, stand with me. If you will commit to stand with and pray for the needy, stand with me now. If you commit to stand up for and pray for the oppressed, stand with us now. If you commit to pray for our leaders so that the Lord may have dominion in this country FROM SEA TO SEA, stand with us now. Happy Canada Day! Halleluiah! Let’s build on our foundation. Let’s live up to our heritage.
You know where we get the power…(Song: Wonderworking Power)
Benediction:
The Lord has provided, (vss 18-19) “blessed be the lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.”
---------------------------------
[4] http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/arm2_e.cfm
Luke 4 - Jesus' Forty Days
Presented to Stony Mountain Penitentiary 18 June 2007
Presented to 614 Regent Park, Warehouse Mission 12 March 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I’ve really enjoyed living in Winnipeg the last couple of years. It was good getting to know all of you as well. In a week or so I’m getting out. I’m going to miss you guys but (you know what) I’m kind of happy to get out. I don’t know if you can relate to that at all.
I’ve been in Winnipeg for about 2 years now and I’ve been at the college that whole time where they tell me what to do, what to wear, when and where to go and, if I want to do anything different, I have to meet with my advisors, my workers, and have tons of paper work filled out. Many times, by the time I have jumped through all the hoops, it’s too late to do the programme that I wanted to do anyway. I don’t know if you would know what that is like. Oh wait? Maybe there are some similarities between us here.
All kidding aside, I know it’s not the same but I am still looking forward to being free. But to tell you the truth I’m a little nervous. I’ve made a lot of good friends here in Winnipeg. I’m going to miss you guys. I really am. I’ve liked coming here every Monday. I’ve even looked forward to it.
And I’m also a little nervous too because things have changed since I’ve been out on my own making decisions for myself. The world doesn’t stand still. But God is good He has been preparing me for my release into the world, just like He has with those of you who are getting out of here soon. God is getting us ready for our next stage in life.
Because of this I thought that it would be good to look at the part in the Bible where God is getting Jesus ready for the next part of his life, when he is about to start his full-time ministry. We read from Luke 4 earlier where the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for 40 days.
This is right when Jesus is released into ministry. And just before this happens – in 3 verse 21 – Jesus is baptised along with a bunch of other people and the HOLY SPIRIT, the Holy Spirit himself descends upon Him like a dove. And God says to him (verse 22) you are my Son, ‘you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus is released and his dad, his father, God, is happy.
Now what happens as soon as he is released, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him and leads him into the desert to fast for 40 days… and then Jesus is tempted by the devil. Great. He gets released into ministry and winds up in the desert with no food and being tempted by the devil. Gee, thanks. And we think some of the guys that are going to meet us when we get out are bad …the devil himself shows up to meet Jesus.
Now, I just want to explain something here that is sort of an aside but is nonetheless important. Looking quickly at James 1:13, “No one, when tempted should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”
The bad stuff that happens, the tempting here, it isn’t by God. He doesn’t do it. Take a look. The devil does it. Just like with Job. And also Jesus never gives into the thought of doing it. He never actual considers it (God cannot be tempted) but the devil does try to tempt him.
What God, the Holy Spirit, does is to lead him into the desert to fast; He gives Jesus a chance to prove Himself. And this is important also because of the symbolism of the other people that God has encouraged like this: there’s Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8) and Moses, (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9) who fast for 40 days – Moses, when he gets the 10 commandments; Elijah after all the prophets of Baal have been killed; There is rain for forty days and nights when Noah is in the Ark after God frees him and, (cf. 1 Cor 10:1-10) the Israelites, as soon as they are released from captivity in Egypt, spend their first 40 years in the desert. And now God is giving this same opportunity to Jesus – and in the process letting everyone know that Jesus is at least the same calibre as these people - and we know he’s even more…
Jesus gets his forty days when he’s out. It is sort of like a halfway house, I would imagine – except without any food. He is released into ministry but he is still in the desert. It is here that the devil attacks him.
It will be exiting now that we are getting out into the real world again. You should have heard the cheering around the college when our release was announced! Wow. Having them say they trust us out there and that they were going to give us a church and more to be in charge of, I imagine, must have been like a successful parole hearing. Or a voice from heaven – we were stunned.
And when we get out, I imagine we’ll find the same thing that Jesus found when he was led into the dessert. At first it will be a little different than everyday life. We probably won’t have a full work routine or normal life just yet and we will be getting to know everyone and everything. The Lord, I’m sure, will give us a lot of time, if we use it, to spend in prayer and fasting.
But you know who strikes to try to take away our freedom? Satan - The Devil. The Holy Spirit will lead us out of here. He will. He will set us up; and who’ll attack? Who’ll attack? That’s right.
And here’s the thing. He attacks in a number of different ways. He’s not stupid. He knows where to get us. And he tries to tempt Jesus the same way he tries to get us. Jesus in his life faces every temptation that is common to people.
The first way the Devil tries to get Jesus is through a social temptation. How many of us have ever fallen prey to a social temptation? Jesus is hungry. He’s been fasting for forty days - remember. And, verse 3: “The devil said to him ‘if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’” Now in doing this the devil is saying a couple of things, 1) you call yourself the Son of God? I don’t believe you. Prove it. You’re hungry. Feed yourself. And 2) he also knows that Israel wasn’t the richest country in the world and there were starving people then (just like there are starving people now). If he is the Son of God, he should be able to take care of society, of people, of his friends, of his family, & of himself. Jesus, Satan says, feed yourself, if you care about people - if you can; turn this rock into bread, if you can (cf. John 6:26, 30-31).
The devil tries to tempt us the same way doesn’t he? You’re free. You go home or wherever. You’re doing well. You’re keeping clean. Your buddy calls you up. Hey can you run to the beer store for us? Or can you meet this guy and pick up some dope for us. You refuse and they accuse: What! you won’t even get that for us! I thought you were our friend. We’ll give you the money. If you really are our friend, just turn this “bread” into rock if you can.
But what does Jesus answer when the devil tries to tempt him? He answers by quoting the Bible. Good call. Good reason to keep reading the word too. Jesus doesn’t need to turn the rock into bread and he says, vs. 4, ‘man does not live by bread alone.’
(This is neat.) I wish you all had Bibles with you today. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8. This is right when Israel was finishing its forty years in the desert, just like Jesus is finishing his forty days in the dessert. God lets them be hungry (8:3) just like God lets Jesus be hungry but he took care of them. ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ God will provide.
God will take care of Jesus. God took care of the Israelites, even though they were hungry. The Spirit who led him into the desert will do it. And so Jesus tells the devil: ‘Man does not live by bread alone (Deut 8:3).’
God and His Spirit that will lead you out of prison will take care of your friends too. He probably won’t get them their rock / But God will take care of them / and He will take care of you. Even if you are hungry; even if they are hungry; even if they are pressuring you to help them get crack; just tell them straight up that ‘man does not live by rock alone – um - bread alone.’ And, hey, God took care of the Israelites …so God can take care of you. There is no need to disregard God, to look after what your friends want (cf, Nolland, 179). God can take care of everyone.
The devil doesn’t give up so easy though. He tries first with the social temptation. He tries next with a political temptation: you can be great, he says, Luke 4:5-6, I will give you all of the power, all countries –all of the kingdoms- in the world. I will give you all this authority, “it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I please. If you then worship me it will be yours.”
This seems to be a pretty good offer. After all, the devil is right - sort of - he has been given authority on earth (John 12:30-32, 14:29-31, 16:11)– you don’t have to look so far with all the wars, violence, and starving people around (even though God has given us more than enough to solve all of these problems), You don’t have to look to far to see the trouble that we people are causing because the devil is the ‘prince of this world.’
In our passage, the devil is tempting Jesus with power. He is saying, look, just work for me, and you can be in charge of this world. You say you are the Messiah, the king of kings (cf. 1 Tim 6:15). You can have all the political power in the world, just come work for me.
You know what. We are going to face this temptation too. You may get out of here and be established. You may even begin talking to people about how God has cleaned you up and you’re clean and straight now. Someone might come up to you and make you an offer…work for me they’ll say…maybe they are into some bad things…maybe at first they aren’t asking you to do any of those things but are just saying, ‘look I got money. I got respect. I got authority. “Don’t follow God, work with me instead and you can have it too…” Does this temptation sound familiar? You know, I used to be a businessman myself, and I can tell you I faced this temptation more than once.
Well, what does Jesus do…just as God’s Spirit leads Jesus into the desert. He turns to God’s word and disarms the devil. He quotes scripture again. And –this is cool- he quotes from the same part of scripture when the Israelites are just finishing up their time in the desert (Deut 6: 13-15) that the Devil quoted earlier. He says, verse 8, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ This makes sense really if we think about it. Sure the devil has been given a certain amount of authority on earth, but it really is God who is the King of kings. Satan, is just a rebellious prince. He’s a bad manager while the boss is away. And you know what happens to a bad manager when the boss comes back…it isn’t good. And for those who are working for the guy who is undermining his boss… Jesus knows. Jesus knows that ultimately all authority on heaven and earth is really His anyway because he is God’s son.
We should know this too. God is real. His Spirit is getting us out of here and Jesus is coming back. And when he does, do you want to be working for a rebellious prince, a bad manager, or a dealer with a bad debt? …or would you rather be working for God! God is the real authority and Jesus is coming back. Don’t be tempted to serve anyone else or you’ll be back here sooner than you think, or worse.
The Devil doesn’t give up though. Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit. He so far has been remaining in the Spirit and quoting Scripture. So you know what Satan does? He quotes scripture too. And he knows it pretty well. He takes Jesus to the top of the massive temple in Jerusalem and says –Verses 9 -11– “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-21).” Good point.
This is a religious temptation. The Devil quotes the Bible and it says that God’s angel will protect Him. Don’t worry, you’ll be okay. God will protect you. You’ll be fine.
How many times do we hear this in our lives: its just a white lie: you’ll be fine if you do this; you won’t go to hell. You’re just speeding, its not hurting anybody. Just one toke, God’s not going to cast you away for just one puff. Look no one really cares about that anyway. It says that God will never leave you nor forsake you. We all sin all the time anyway. These are tricks the devil can use to lead us astray and…
This is it. This is the culminating attempt at temptation and this is one lie that can get us all if we don’t rely heavily on God’s Spirit and God’s Scripture: ‘your not hurting anyone…and why bother? Since we all sin all the time anyway’.
It’s not true. We don’t need to sin so don’t believe it when you hear it. We don’t need to sin. We do need not to sin. Be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). Be perfect (2 Cor. 13; Col. 1:28; Hebrews 11,12;). We can’t do it ourselves but…The Lord will help us. He will do it (1 Thess 5:23-24). We need to rely on God and on his scriptures like Jesus did. Turn to the Spirit who lets us endure any temptation. Its like Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy again, ‘don’t put the Lord your God to the test’…don’t Sin! Don’t listen to Nike – JUST DO IT. Listen to God and Just DON’T do it!
So when the Holy Spirit released Jesus into His ministry, the devil tried tempting Jesus with everything he had. Jesus was in the Spirit, he relied on God and he relied on the Bible, and in so doing he resisted the devil and the devil fled from him. Like it says in James 1:12, ‘Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.’
Don’t give up, remain in the spirit, even if you slip up, remain in the spirit and as you do you will find that you read the scriptures, trust in God, endure the temptations, and persevere. Remember what it said in Luke 4:13-14: ‘When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him –until an opportune time- Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee. And it will be the same with us.
Let us pray. This prayer for us from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, ‘May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you (us) through and through. May your (our) whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’
So then, we need to remember when we leave here and are faced with temptations from the devil himself, to just remain in the Spirit, like Jesus and the devil will flee us -
God will take care of him.
Presented to 614 Regent Park, Warehouse Mission 12 March 2017
by Captain Michael Ramsay
I’ve really enjoyed living in Winnipeg the last couple of years. It was good getting to know all of you as well. In a week or so I’m getting out. I’m going to miss you guys but (you know what) I’m kind of happy to get out. I don’t know if you can relate to that at all.
I’ve been in Winnipeg for about 2 years now and I’ve been at the college that whole time where they tell me what to do, what to wear, when and where to go and, if I want to do anything different, I have to meet with my advisors, my workers, and have tons of paper work filled out. Many times, by the time I have jumped through all the hoops, it’s too late to do the programme that I wanted to do anyway. I don’t know if you would know what that is like. Oh wait? Maybe there are some similarities between us here.
All kidding aside, I know it’s not the same but I am still looking forward to being free. But to tell you the truth I’m a little nervous. I’ve made a lot of good friends here in Winnipeg. I’m going to miss you guys. I really am. I’ve liked coming here every Monday. I’ve even looked forward to it.
And I’m also a little nervous too because things have changed since I’ve been out on my own making decisions for myself. The world doesn’t stand still. But God is good He has been preparing me for my release into the world, just like He has with those of you who are getting out of here soon. God is getting us ready for our next stage in life.
Because of this I thought that it would be good to look at the part in the Bible where God is getting Jesus ready for the next part of his life, when he is about to start his full-time ministry. We read from Luke 4 earlier where the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert for 40 days.
This is right when Jesus is released into ministry. And just before this happens – in 3 verse 21 – Jesus is baptised along with a bunch of other people and the HOLY SPIRIT, the Holy Spirit himself descends upon Him like a dove. And God says to him (verse 22) you are my Son, ‘you are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ Jesus is released and his dad, his father, God, is happy.
Now what happens as soon as he is released, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him and leads him into the desert to fast for 40 days… and then Jesus is tempted by the devil. Great. He gets released into ministry and winds up in the desert with no food and being tempted by the devil. Gee, thanks. And we think some of the guys that are going to meet us when we get out are bad …the devil himself shows up to meet Jesus.
Now, I just want to explain something here that is sort of an aside but is nonetheless important. Looking quickly at James 1:13, “No one, when tempted should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.”
The bad stuff that happens, the tempting here, it isn’t by God. He doesn’t do it. Take a look. The devil does it. Just like with Job. And also Jesus never gives into the thought of doing it. He never actual considers it (God cannot be tempted) but the devil does try to tempt him.
What God, the Holy Spirit, does is to lead him into the desert to fast; He gives Jesus a chance to prove Himself. And this is important also because of the symbolism of the other people that God has encouraged like this: there’s Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8) and Moses, (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9) who fast for 40 days – Moses, when he gets the 10 commandments; Elijah after all the prophets of Baal have been killed; There is rain for forty days and nights when Noah is in the Ark after God frees him and, (cf. 1 Cor 10:1-10) the Israelites, as soon as they are released from captivity in Egypt, spend their first 40 years in the desert. And now God is giving this same opportunity to Jesus – and in the process letting everyone know that Jesus is at least the same calibre as these people - and we know he’s even more…
Jesus gets his forty days when he’s out. It is sort of like a halfway house, I would imagine – except without any food. He is released into ministry but he is still in the desert. It is here that the devil attacks him.
It will be exiting now that we are getting out into the real world again. You should have heard the cheering around the college when our release was announced! Wow. Having them say they trust us out there and that they were going to give us a church and more to be in charge of, I imagine, must have been like a successful parole hearing. Or a voice from heaven – we were stunned.
And when we get out, I imagine we’ll find the same thing that Jesus found when he was led into the dessert. At first it will be a little different than everyday life. We probably won’t have a full work routine or normal life just yet and we will be getting to know everyone and everything. The Lord, I’m sure, will give us a lot of time, if we use it, to spend in prayer and fasting.
But you know who strikes to try to take away our freedom? Satan - The Devil. The Holy Spirit will lead us out of here. He will. He will set us up; and who’ll attack? Who’ll attack? That’s right.
And here’s the thing. He attacks in a number of different ways. He’s not stupid. He knows where to get us. And he tries to tempt Jesus the same way he tries to get us. Jesus in his life faces every temptation that is common to people.
The first way the Devil tries to get Jesus is through a social temptation. How many of us have ever fallen prey to a social temptation? Jesus is hungry. He’s been fasting for forty days - remember. And, verse 3: “The devil said to him ‘if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’” Now in doing this the devil is saying a couple of things, 1) you call yourself the Son of God? I don’t believe you. Prove it. You’re hungry. Feed yourself. And 2) he also knows that Israel wasn’t the richest country in the world and there were starving people then (just like there are starving people now). If he is the Son of God, he should be able to take care of society, of people, of his friends, of his family, & of himself. Jesus, Satan says, feed yourself, if you care about people - if you can; turn this rock into bread, if you can (cf. John 6:26, 30-31).
The devil tries to tempt us the same way doesn’t he? You’re free. You go home or wherever. You’re doing well. You’re keeping clean. Your buddy calls you up. Hey can you run to the beer store for us? Or can you meet this guy and pick up some dope for us. You refuse and they accuse: What! you won’t even get that for us! I thought you were our friend. We’ll give you the money. If you really are our friend, just turn this “bread” into rock if you can.
But what does Jesus answer when the devil tries to tempt him? He answers by quoting the Bible. Good call. Good reason to keep reading the word too. Jesus doesn’t need to turn the rock into bread and he says, vs. 4, ‘man does not live by bread alone.’
(This is neat.) I wish you all had Bibles with you today. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8. This is right when Israel was finishing its forty years in the desert, just like Jesus is finishing his forty days in the dessert. God lets them be hungry (8:3) just like God lets Jesus be hungry but he took care of them. ‘Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ God will provide.
God will take care of Jesus. God took care of the Israelites, even though they were hungry. The Spirit who led him into the desert will do it. And so Jesus tells the devil: ‘Man does not live by bread alone (Deut 8:3).’
God and His Spirit that will lead you out of prison will take care of your friends too. He probably won’t get them their rock / But God will take care of them / and He will take care of you. Even if you are hungry; even if they are hungry; even if they are pressuring you to help them get crack; just tell them straight up that ‘man does not live by rock alone – um - bread alone.’ And, hey, God took care of the Israelites …so God can take care of you. There is no need to disregard God, to look after what your friends want (cf, Nolland, 179). God can take care of everyone.
The devil doesn’t give up so easy though. He tries first with the social temptation. He tries next with a political temptation: you can be great, he says, Luke 4:5-6, I will give you all of the power, all countries –all of the kingdoms- in the world. I will give you all this authority, “it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I please. If you then worship me it will be yours.”
This seems to be a pretty good offer. After all, the devil is right - sort of - he has been given authority on earth (John 12:30-32, 14:29-31, 16:11)– you don’t have to look so far with all the wars, violence, and starving people around (even though God has given us more than enough to solve all of these problems), You don’t have to look to far to see the trouble that we people are causing because the devil is the ‘prince of this world.’
In our passage, the devil is tempting Jesus with power. He is saying, look, just work for me, and you can be in charge of this world. You say you are the Messiah, the king of kings (cf. 1 Tim 6:15). You can have all the political power in the world, just come work for me.
You know what. We are going to face this temptation too. You may get out of here and be established. You may even begin talking to people about how God has cleaned you up and you’re clean and straight now. Someone might come up to you and make you an offer…work for me they’ll say…maybe they are into some bad things…maybe at first they aren’t asking you to do any of those things but are just saying, ‘look I got money. I got respect. I got authority. “Don’t follow God, work with me instead and you can have it too…” Does this temptation sound familiar? You know, I used to be a businessman myself, and I can tell you I faced this temptation more than once.
Well, what does Jesus do…just as God’s Spirit leads Jesus into the desert. He turns to God’s word and disarms the devil. He quotes scripture again. And –this is cool- he quotes from the same part of scripture when the Israelites are just finishing up their time in the desert (Deut 6: 13-15) that the Devil quoted earlier. He says, verse 8, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’ This makes sense really if we think about it. Sure the devil has been given a certain amount of authority on earth, but it really is God who is the King of kings. Satan, is just a rebellious prince. He’s a bad manager while the boss is away. And you know what happens to a bad manager when the boss comes back…it isn’t good. And for those who are working for the guy who is undermining his boss… Jesus knows. Jesus knows that ultimately all authority on heaven and earth is really His anyway because he is God’s son.
We should know this too. God is real. His Spirit is getting us out of here and Jesus is coming back. And when he does, do you want to be working for a rebellious prince, a bad manager, or a dealer with a bad debt? …or would you rather be working for God! God is the real authority and Jesus is coming back. Don’t be tempted to serve anyone else or you’ll be back here sooner than you think, or worse.
The Devil doesn’t give up though. Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit. He so far has been remaining in the Spirit and quoting Scripture. So you know what Satan does? He quotes scripture too. And he knows it pretty well. He takes Jesus to the top of the massive temple in Jerusalem and says –Verses 9 -11– “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone (Psalm 91:11-21).” Good point.
This is a religious temptation. The Devil quotes the Bible and it says that God’s angel will protect Him. Don’t worry, you’ll be okay. God will protect you. You’ll be fine.
How many times do we hear this in our lives: its just a white lie: you’ll be fine if you do this; you won’t go to hell. You’re just speeding, its not hurting anybody. Just one toke, God’s not going to cast you away for just one puff. Look no one really cares about that anyway. It says that God will never leave you nor forsake you. We all sin all the time anyway. These are tricks the devil can use to lead us astray and…
This is it. This is the culminating attempt at temptation and this is one lie that can get us all if we don’t rely heavily on God’s Spirit and God’s Scripture: ‘your not hurting anyone…and why bother? Since we all sin all the time anyway’.
It’s not true. We don’t need to sin so don’t believe it when you hear it. We don’t need to sin. We do need not to sin. Be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Lev 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). Be perfect (2 Cor. 13; Col. 1:28; Hebrews 11,12;). We can’t do it ourselves but…The Lord will help us. He will do it (1 Thess 5:23-24). We need to rely on God and on his scriptures like Jesus did. Turn to the Spirit who lets us endure any temptation. Its like Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy again, ‘don’t put the Lord your God to the test’…don’t Sin! Don’t listen to Nike – JUST DO IT. Listen to God and Just DON’T do it!
So when the Holy Spirit released Jesus into His ministry, the devil tried tempting Jesus with everything he had. Jesus was in the Spirit, he relied on God and he relied on the Bible, and in so doing he resisted the devil and the devil fled from him. Like it says in James 1:12, ‘Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.’
Don’t give up, remain in the spirit, even if you slip up, remain in the spirit and as you do you will find that you read the scriptures, trust in God, endure the temptations, and persevere. Remember what it said in Luke 4:13-14: ‘When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him –until an opportune time- Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee. And it will be the same with us.
Let us pray. This prayer for us from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, ‘May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you (us) through and through. May your (our) whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’
So then, we need to remember when we leave here and are faced with temptations from the devil himself, to just remain in the Spirit, like Jesus and the devil will flee us -
God will take care of him.
Acts 2 - Act II, Scene 1
Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 August 2007 and Swift Current Corps 23 May 2010 and 17 May 2015
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Click here to read an abridged version presented for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service on 16 January 2011 held at St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church in Swift Current:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/01/acts-2-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian.html
For the 2015 edition, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/05/acts-2-scene-1.html
by Captain Michael Ramsay
Click here to read an abridged version presented for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service on 16 January 2011 held at St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church in Swift Current:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/01/acts-2-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian.html
For the 2015 edition, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/05/acts-2-scene-1.html
For the 2022 Alberni Valley Ministries version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/06/akin-to-coles-notes-on-acts-2-for-2022.html
Acts is a neat book. Did you know that It is the only history in the NT? Luke and Acts also were written by the same author and these books actually come together as sort of a two volume set that many scholars like to call ‘Luke-Acts.’ Together this set comprises more than 30% of the NT. Luke-Acts is thus important for us to understand.
Acts always reminds me of a play. Maybe it’s the name (Act 1, scene 2). But particularly in the first part, Acts reminds me of a Shakespearian play. Anyone remember studying Shakespeare in school?
All right, here’s another quiz for you. Who can name the play these quotes are from: ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’ “to be or not to be, that is the question” – here’s an easy one - “Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”? [answers at bottom]
Shakespeare wrote very dramatic plays and some of the tragedies are pretty tragic like Hamlet. Remember, his ‘to be or not to be’ speech where, of course, he is either pretending to be insane (or actually goes insane) while trying catch his father’s killer who happens to be his uncle and is also married to his mother. (Sounds like a soap opera actually) And in the end - everybody dies…
Or on a happier note, there is Romeo and Juliet. Young love. But their parents object so they sneak around for a while and then eventually (pause) kill themselves…okay so not a lot of happy endings…but they are very dramatic and neat stories nonetheless.
Shakespeare was a master playwright. And Acts reminds me of Shakespeare’s work. (Only its better) God uses Luke to communicate the VERY dramatic REAL events that happen here and Luke attributes to Peter some amazing speeches that could cause the post-modern reader to recall Mark Anthony, Lady MacBeth, or Hamlet.
And he uses the scenes and speeches that we will look at today and in the weeks to come to tell the readers how God’s Spirit comes at Pentecost and releases the disciples to proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
As the curtains open on Acts 1’s scene one. The narrator recaps the miracles of the end of Luke (1:1-5) and the resurrection that Susan spoke about last week. He then further explains Jesus’ ascension to heaven (1:6-12) and we now are invited to watch as the disciples, men and women alike (1:14), gather around in the upper room (1:13) casting lots to learn who God has chosen in place of Judas; the gruesome details of whose death unfold for the audience as the protagonist, the Apostle Peter[1] (1-15 of Vol. II) takes to the stage with this opening address (vs. 15-20).
"He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language, Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
Peter - in his address - shows us all how Judas’ death fulfils the scriptures of Pss 69:25 and 109:8.[2] And then as he finishes speaking, the stage fades to black, ending Acts 1. …I trust that you are reading along at home.
Now just before we open the curtain on Acts 2, you should know a bit about the way the stage is set. When the curtain comes up not only will all the disciples still be together. But also in the scene will be ‘Jews from every nation under heaven (2:5)’ and they have come to celebrate Pentecost.[3]
And these Jews on the scene in Acts II here are very familiar with the tradition of the Messiah because they have been looking for someone to deliver them from the evils of the occupation. They have been looking for someone who could offer them freedom for their promised land. They have been looking for someone who can provide salvation for the Jews (cf. psalm 72, 2 Samuel 9). They have been looking for the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour of Israel.
It is upon this crowd that we gaze as the curtain rises on scene one in Acts II: (I’m reading from the NIV, Acts II)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing (sound effects) of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be (pillars) tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
And this is the dramatic scene in the opening of Acts 2. And if this were a Shakespearean play, now, hundreds of years later, there would be - Cole’s Notes! - so that we can all understand the nuances of what is happening before us and there are many nuances…
If we had our Cole’s Notes with us today there would probably be an asterisk beside the word ‘Pentecost’ (vs. 1) because when we think of Pentecost we usually think of this very moment: the advent of the Holy Spirit in Acts – but it is more than that.
Your Cole’s Notes would probably say that Pentecost is also known by various other names: the feast of weeks (Exod. 34:22; Dt 15:10, 16:9-12; Nu 28:26-31), feast of harvest (Exod 23:16) and the day of first fruits (Exod 34:22; Nu 28:26; Lev 23:9-14) and this is neat: Pentecost occurs on the 50th day after the Sabbath Passover (Exod. 19:1)[4] and here (in Acts II) it is about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.
Now this Jewish festival[5], Pentecost, is a time actually to celebrate God giving the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai:[6] Remember the Ten Commandments and how Moses climbs the Mountain (twice; Exod. 19-20, 31, 34; Dt. 4-5, 10) and God writes the 10 commandments on the stone tablets[7] with his very own finger (Exod. 31:18; Dt. 4:13, 10:1) and when Moses returns from the Mountain his face is literally radiant (34:29-35): it’s shining.
While in our text it is now about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.[8] And as Pentecost is about the Ten Commandments, the covenant and an empowering of the Israelites for their new life outside of Egypt[9] and here now with the coming of the Spirit, in Acts II, the disciples are empowered for their new life in the Kingdom of God (Lk 24:49).[10]
This event certainly does link Jesus to Moses as a deliver of his people – and those present in this scene are probably beginning to understand that Jesus is that deliverer.
There is even more though for the curious reader here to link Jesus to Moses (verse 3): the tongues or pillars of fire above their heads. Remember as God was leading Israel away from Pharaoh’s Army, and parted the Red Sea for them. Remember as he led them around the desert for that generation (Exod 23:21, 33:14; Dt 4:7) what did God lead them with? …: A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar (or tongue) of fire by night. And here we have pillars of fire linking our minds again to Israel’s delivery and Israel’s covenant with God.[11] Isn’t that neat?
And even more – you see the Bible is REAL. These things really did happen but it is also a literary masterpiece with symbolism everywhere – really would we expect anything less from God’s own Word?
Look at 2:6: “each one heard them speaking in his own language;” some have compared this to an un-doing, as it were, of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) actually. Do you remember that story? The people provoke God through the building of this tower and as a result, all of a sudden they are babbling in different languages. God confuses their talk. It is kind of hard to work together when you don’t understand what other people are saying – but now what happens? In Acts II, it is reversed. Instead of language being confused, people can actually now hear the Gospel proclaimed in their OWN language.
And further, some people even relate this event to the giving of the law at Sinai again as, according to Jewish tradition, at that point every people heard the law in its own language.[12]
And now certainly we, as well as the much earlier readers of Acts too can understand here the implicit symbolism representing the truth that Jesus, like Moses, is deliverer of His people[13] - and actually he is the one that they have been waiting for.
But more than that. Your Cole’s notes would probably also have an asterisk beside the words ‘the violent wind’[14] in verse 2 where it says, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”
Now, the passage does not claim that the Holy Spirit is a wind rather the Holy Spirit is like the sound wind makes but, this is neat, HERE in Greek, the word for wind is the SAME word for Spirit in the original Greek (cf. Gen 1:2; Eze 37:9, 14; Jn 3:8) so the SPIRIT (or wind) is coming like the WIND (spirit) and this same play on words occurs in the creation story of Gen 1:2[15] where it says that the Spirit (or wind) of God hovered there - over the waters. This passage is about a beginning, a creation, a new Kingdom, if you like, and Jesus here is not only linked to man, he is also linked to God. This very real act of the Spirit coming on Pentecost unites the symbolism of a messiah and of God himself[16].
So then lets recap: they are all together in one place. The Spirit blows in, sound like a violent wind, tongues of fire are settling on people -- Now lets join the scene in Acts 2:17. the Apostle Peter stands up with the 11 (2:14) to make his speech (Acts 2:17-21) He quotes from the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32) [and Psalm 16:8-10]:
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.(It will be) the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
As if in a Shakespearian soliloquy, Luke records here what Peter explains, from Scriptures. He explains for us exactly what we can see unfolding the scene before us. He explains that Jesus is from God and Jesus is Lord[17] and he explains that ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
And in case we missed it still Peter says from verse 22 onwards – Jesus was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs…and now, if not before, now people get it and so Peter turns to the common everyday people listening and says: Jesus was accredited by God and you … (verse 23) you and wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. You, You killed him.
This is tragic. This is as tragic as any play. The people get it now that Jesus was the messiah (and Peter goes on about it more in the rest of the chapter). They get it. He was the one who was supposed to deliver them. He was the one who was supposed to save them. He was the one who was going to lead them into the Kingdom to come. But there is one problem, he died. And not only that, ‘you’, Peter says, ‘you killed him.’
Can you imagine the sorrow, the guilt, the pain? It must be like Romeo and Juliet’s parents: they loved their children with everything in them. They pinned their future hopes on their children and now because of their actions, their unforgiveness, their very loved children are dead.
You see Jesus was to be our deliver, Peter says, and now you killed him. You wanted a deliver. You had a deliver and you killed him. But there’s more.
Peter makes it clear to us that ‘you’ killed the messiah but he also makes it clear (vs22-23) that he ‘was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge;’ He was ‘accredited by God with miracles, wonders and signs which God did.’ And (verse 24) God raised him from the dead. Jesus is inextricably linked to God and you killed Him and he was raised from the dead
And it’s not necessarily understood as good news yet for those listening[18] - The Judeans know that God is just. And so this could be a little scary really. They here are waiting for their deserved penalty for killing their Messiah.[19] They already saw what happened to Judas for betraying Christ (Acts 1:16-20).
This is a part of the world and understanding of the Jews. They understand that there is a punishment for sin.[20] They understand that there is a penalty for killing Jesus, whom those here –from what we’ve examined today – whom those here, are rightly convinced is the Messiah.
These people are now standing in front of Peter – like repentant children in front of the principal, realising that they’ve done something terribly wrong, hoping against hope to somehow make it right and maybe even avoid their punishment (cf. John 21:15-17 re: Peter’s own restoration): Verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””
What can we do?
We killed Jesus. We killed our Messiah. We killed God’s son. He died for our sins. He’s raised from the dead. Is there anything we can do to be forgiven by Him and by God and be accepted into His Kingdom?
Peter says, verse 38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Now this is significant. You see, as we looked at in Luke, Jesus is ushering in this Kingdom of God. And earlier in this chapter we saw the Spirit of God himself come down from Heaven (Acts 2:1-4, Lk 24). We saw the power of God manifest to announced the Kingdom of God is coming now; it is here.
And what does this Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of forgiveness. It is a Kingdom –like the Lord’s prayer says - where we forgive those who do things against us and God forgives us what we have done – even our sending [as was his purpose and with God’s perfect foreknowledge (vss. 22-23)] God’s own son to die on the cross.
What is it that one must do to be a part of this Kingdom? We just have to repent (This doesn’t just mean change your way of acting – it means change your whole way of thinking) – You must repent – you must now believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and Jesus is Lord. You must believe and be baptised (which here is an initiation ceremony); you must be initiated into the Kingdom of Forgiveness of Sins and the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus – and that’s it.[21]
Peter says then “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This same Holy Spirit that came down on Pentecost and even more than that he assures us that this promise isn’t just for them. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” And, like we read earlier, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
And look what it says, just before the curtain closes on our scene here. It says in verse 47 “day by day the Lord added to their number those being saved.”
And may it be continue to be so. Come and pray for the Spirit in our lives.
Acts is a neat book. Did you know that It is the only history in the NT? Luke and Acts also were written by the same author and these books actually come together as sort of a two volume set that many scholars like to call ‘Luke-Acts.’ Together this set comprises more than 30% of the NT. Luke-Acts is thus important for us to understand.
Acts always reminds me of a play. Maybe it’s the name (Act 1, scene 2). But particularly in the first part, Acts reminds me of a Shakespearian play. Anyone remember studying Shakespeare in school?
All right, here’s another quiz for you. Who can name the play these quotes are from: ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’ “to be or not to be, that is the question” – here’s an easy one - “Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”? [answers at bottom]
Shakespeare wrote very dramatic plays and some of the tragedies are pretty tragic like Hamlet. Remember, his ‘to be or not to be’ speech where, of course, he is either pretending to be insane (or actually goes insane) while trying catch his father’s killer who happens to be his uncle and is also married to his mother. (Sounds like a soap opera actually) And in the end - everybody dies…
Or on a happier note, there is Romeo and Juliet. Young love. But their parents object so they sneak around for a while and then eventually (pause) kill themselves…okay so not a lot of happy endings…but they are very dramatic and neat stories nonetheless.
Shakespeare was a master playwright. And Acts reminds me of Shakespeare’s work. (Only its better) God uses Luke to communicate the VERY dramatic REAL events that happen here and Luke attributes to Peter some amazing speeches that could cause the post-modern reader to recall Mark Anthony, Lady MacBeth, or Hamlet.
And he uses the scenes and speeches that we will look at today and in the weeks to come to tell the readers how God’s Spirit comes at Pentecost and releases the disciples to proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
As the curtains open on Acts 1’s scene one. The narrator recaps the miracles of the end of Luke (1:1-5) and the resurrection that Susan spoke about last week. He then further explains Jesus’ ascension to heaven (1:6-12) and we now are invited to watch as the disciples, men and women alike (1:14), gather around in the upper room (1:13) casting lots to learn who God has chosen in place of Judas; the gruesome details of whose death unfold for the audience as the protagonist, the Apostle Peter[1] (1-15 of Vol. II) takes to the stage with this opening address (vs. 15-20).
"He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”
(With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language, Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
Peter - in his address - shows us all how Judas’ death fulfils the scriptures of Pss 69:25 and 109:8.[2] And then as he finishes speaking, the stage fades to black, ending Acts 1. …I trust that you are reading along at home.
Now just before we open the curtain on Acts 2, you should know a bit about the way the stage is set. When the curtain comes up not only will all the disciples still be together. But also in the scene will be ‘Jews from every nation under heaven (2:5)’ and they have come to celebrate Pentecost.[3]
And these Jews on the scene in Acts II here are very familiar with the tradition of the Messiah because they have been looking for someone to deliver them from the evils of the occupation. They have been looking for someone who could offer them freedom for their promised land. They have been looking for someone who can provide salvation for the Jews (cf. psalm 72, 2 Samuel 9). They have been looking for the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour of Israel.
It is upon this crowd that we gaze as the curtain rises on scene one in Acts II: (I’m reading from the NIV, Acts II)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing (sound effects) of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be (pillars) tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
And this is the dramatic scene in the opening of Acts 2. And if this were a Shakespearean play, now, hundreds of years later, there would be - Cole’s Notes! - so that we can all understand the nuances of what is happening before us and there are many nuances…
If we had our Cole’s Notes with us today there would probably be an asterisk beside the word ‘Pentecost’ (vs. 1) because when we think of Pentecost we usually think of this very moment: the advent of the Holy Spirit in Acts – but it is more than that.
Your Cole’s Notes would probably say that Pentecost is also known by various other names: the feast of weeks (Exod. 34:22; Dt 15:10, 16:9-12; Nu 28:26-31), feast of harvest (Exod 23:16) and the day of first fruits (Exod 34:22; Nu 28:26; Lev 23:9-14) and this is neat: Pentecost occurs on the 50th day after the Sabbath Passover (Exod. 19:1)[4] and here (in Acts II) it is about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.
Now this Jewish festival[5], Pentecost, is a time actually to celebrate God giving the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai:[6] Remember the Ten Commandments and how Moses climbs the Mountain (twice; Exod. 19-20, 31, 34; Dt. 4-5, 10) and God writes the 10 commandments on the stone tablets[7] with his very own finger (Exod. 31:18; Dt. 4:13, 10:1) and when Moses returns from the Mountain his face is literally radiant (34:29-35): it’s shining.
While in our text it is now about 50 days after Jesus was crucified.[8] And as Pentecost is about the Ten Commandments, the covenant and an empowering of the Israelites for their new life outside of Egypt[9] and here now with the coming of the Spirit, in Acts II, the disciples are empowered for their new life in the Kingdom of God (Lk 24:49).[10]
This event certainly does link Jesus to Moses as a deliver of his people – and those present in this scene are probably beginning to understand that Jesus is that deliverer.
There is even more though for the curious reader here to link Jesus to Moses (verse 3): the tongues or pillars of fire above their heads. Remember as God was leading Israel away from Pharaoh’s Army, and parted the Red Sea for them. Remember as he led them around the desert for that generation (Exod 23:21, 33:14; Dt 4:7) what did God lead them with? …: A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar (or tongue) of fire by night. And here we have pillars of fire linking our minds again to Israel’s delivery and Israel’s covenant with God.[11] Isn’t that neat?
And even more – you see the Bible is REAL. These things really did happen but it is also a literary masterpiece with symbolism everywhere – really would we expect anything less from God’s own Word?
Look at 2:6: “each one heard them speaking in his own language;” some have compared this to an un-doing, as it were, of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) actually. Do you remember that story? The people provoke God through the building of this tower and as a result, all of a sudden they are babbling in different languages. God confuses their talk. It is kind of hard to work together when you don’t understand what other people are saying – but now what happens? In Acts II, it is reversed. Instead of language being confused, people can actually now hear the Gospel proclaimed in their OWN language.
And further, some people even relate this event to the giving of the law at Sinai again as, according to Jewish tradition, at that point every people heard the law in its own language.[12]
And now certainly we, as well as the much earlier readers of Acts too can understand here the implicit symbolism representing the truth that Jesus, like Moses, is deliverer of His people[13] - and actually he is the one that they have been waiting for.
But more than that. Your Cole’s notes would probably also have an asterisk beside the words ‘the violent wind’[14] in verse 2 where it says, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”
Now, the passage does not claim that the Holy Spirit is a wind rather the Holy Spirit is like the sound wind makes but, this is neat, HERE in Greek, the word for wind is the SAME word for Spirit in the original Greek (cf. Gen 1:2; Eze 37:9, 14; Jn 3:8) so the SPIRIT (or wind) is coming like the WIND (spirit) and this same play on words occurs in the creation story of Gen 1:2[15] where it says that the Spirit (or wind) of God hovered there - over the waters. This passage is about a beginning, a creation, a new Kingdom, if you like, and Jesus here is not only linked to man, he is also linked to God. This very real act of the Spirit coming on Pentecost unites the symbolism of a messiah and of God himself[16].
So then lets recap: they are all together in one place. The Spirit blows in, sound like a violent wind, tongues of fire are settling on people -- Now lets join the scene in Acts 2:17. the Apostle Peter stands up with the 11 (2:14) to make his speech (Acts 2:17-21) He quotes from the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32) [and Psalm 16:8-10]:
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.(It will be) the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
As if in a Shakespearian soliloquy, Luke records here what Peter explains, from Scriptures. He explains for us exactly what we can see unfolding the scene before us. He explains that Jesus is from God and Jesus is Lord[17] and he explains that ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
And in case we missed it still Peter says from verse 22 onwards – Jesus was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs…and now, if not before, now people get it and so Peter turns to the common everyday people listening and says: Jesus was accredited by God and you … (verse 23) you and wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. You, You killed him.
This is tragic. This is as tragic as any play. The people get it now that Jesus was the messiah (and Peter goes on about it more in the rest of the chapter). They get it. He was the one who was supposed to deliver them. He was the one who was supposed to save them. He was the one who was going to lead them into the Kingdom to come. But there is one problem, he died. And not only that, ‘you’, Peter says, ‘you killed him.’
Can you imagine the sorrow, the guilt, the pain? It must be like Romeo and Juliet’s parents: they loved their children with everything in them. They pinned their future hopes on their children and now because of their actions, their unforgiveness, their very loved children are dead.
You see Jesus was to be our deliver, Peter says, and now you killed him. You wanted a deliver. You had a deliver and you killed him. But there’s more.
Peter makes it clear to us that ‘you’ killed the messiah but he also makes it clear (vs22-23) that he ‘was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge;’ He was ‘accredited by God with miracles, wonders and signs which God did.’ And (verse 24) God raised him from the dead. Jesus is inextricably linked to God and you killed Him and he was raised from the dead
And it’s not necessarily understood as good news yet for those listening[18] - The Judeans know that God is just. And so this could be a little scary really. They here are waiting for their deserved penalty for killing their Messiah.[19] They already saw what happened to Judas for betraying Christ (Acts 1:16-20).
This is a part of the world and understanding of the Jews. They understand that there is a punishment for sin.[20] They understand that there is a penalty for killing Jesus, whom those here –from what we’ve examined today – whom those here, are rightly convinced is the Messiah.
These people are now standing in front of Peter – like repentant children in front of the principal, realising that they’ve done something terribly wrong, hoping against hope to somehow make it right and maybe even avoid their punishment (cf. John 21:15-17 re: Peter’s own restoration): Verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?””
What can we do?
We killed Jesus. We killed our Messiah. We killed God’s son. He died for our sins. He’s raised from the dead. Is there anything we can do to be forgiven by Him and by God and be accepted into His Kingdom?
Peter says, verse 38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Now this is significant. You see, as we looked at in Luke, Jesus is ushering in this Kingdom of God. And earlier in this chapter we saw the Spirit of God himself come down from Heaven (Acts 2:1-4, Lk 24). We saw the power of God manifest to announced the Kingdom of God is coming now; it is here.
And what does this Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of forgiveness. It is a Kingdom –like the Lord’s prayer says - where we forgive those who do things against us and God forgives us what we have done – even our sending [as was his purpose and with God’s perfect foreknowledge (vss. 22-23)] God’s own son to die on the cross.
What is it that one must do to be a part of this Kingdom? We just have to repent (This doesn’t just mean change your way of acting – it means change your whole way of thinking) – You must repent – you must now believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and Jesus is Lord. You must believe and be baptised (which here is an initiation ceremony); you must be initiated into the Kingdom of Forgiveness of Sins and the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus – and that’s it.[21]
Peter says then “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This same Holy Spirit that came down on Pentecost and even more than that he assures us that this promise isn’t just for them. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” And, like we read earlier, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
And look what it says, just before the curtain closes on our scene here. It says in verse 47 “day by day the Lord added to their number those being saved.”
And may it be continue to be so. Come and pray for the Spirit in our lives.
ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ
‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’ - Mark Anthony in 'Julius Caesar'
“to be or not to be, that is the question” – Hamlet in 'Hamlet'
“Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”? - Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet'
___________________________________________________________________
[1] After Acts 15, Paul becomes the central apostle, whose acts we are following.
[2] “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ (Psalm 69:25) and, “‘May another take his place of leadership’ (Psalm 109:8).
[3] These Jews are probably members of the Diaspora: shortly after Jesus died, there was an unsuccessful Jewish rebellion (68-73 CE) against the Romans [which led to the destruction of the temple (70 CE).] As a result, many Judeans had to flee for their lives. This dispersion was throughout the Mediterranean world and these dispersed Jews are members of the now commonly called Diaspora. However, “We have seen that this Dispersion had [actually] begun six centuries before in the Babylonian Captivity, and had been renewed in the settling of Alexandria.” Will Durant, Caesar and Christ. (TSC 3: New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944), 545. Those present here would be from the earlier group as Acts is set before the destruction of the temple and some even argue that the scene in Acts 2 actually takes place in the temple.
[4] Thus the name Pentecost from the Hebrew he pentekoste "fiftieth"
[5] There is much discussion about whether or not Luke was making specific reference to this event at the time of his writing; regardless of whether this was an intentional parallel drawn by the author of Luke, the symbolism seems to be divinely intentioned. Cf. Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 57-58, for a thorough discussion of this.
[6] This continues to this day. Also cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 57.
[7] The first time (Exod. 31:18); The second time, according to the Exodus account, Moses is required to do the writing himself (Exod. 34:1; but cf. Dt. 10:1)
[8] In John’s narrative (John 20:19-23), The disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit before Jesus has gone to ‘his Father’s house.’ This may be a different record of the same event; however, it may not. This appearance of the Holy Spirit is not an act unique to Acts II.
[9] Robert W. Wall, p. 54. : [Some] interpreters posit a new dispensation has dawned when the Holy Spirit through the Messiah mediates a new covenant. (cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 8:2).
[10] Cf. Willimon, p. 28.
[11] These tongues are also an obvious fulfilment of Luke 3:16: ‘He shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” They may however also represent the altar with its holy fire. Fire is also a symbol of purity and purification, cf. also Lenski, p. 59.
[12] Fredrick Frye Bruce, The Book of Acts. (TNICNT: Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 54.
[13] Certainly readers of Matthew would understand this, as one of the themes of Matthew is that Jesus is ‘the new Moses.’
[14] Jesus himself compares the coming of the Spirit to the wind, see John 3:8.
[15] R.C.H Lenski, p. 58: “This mighty sound was surely a symbol of power, and we may recall that both the Hebrew and the Greek words for Spirit, Ruach and IIamven denote wind or breath.” Some also suggest that the ‘whole house’ referred to in this verse here may actually be an allusion to the Temple, which was destroyed in 70 AD.
[16] See John 3:8 where Jesus himself compared the coming of the Spirit to the blowing of the wind.
[17] It is significant here, I believe, that Luke quoted the Greek text. He was able to thus make a strong intentional link then with the word ‘Lord’.
[18] This is reminiscent of Jesus’ appearance to Peter right after Peter had denied him and he was crucified.
[19] Cf. Robert W. Wall. pp. 66-67.
[20] Cf. NT Wright, The Problem of Evil and the Justice of God.
[21] Ibid.
‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’ - Mark Anthony in 'Julius Caesar'
“to be or not to be, that is the question” – Hamlet in 'Hamlet'
“Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”? - Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet'
___________________________________________________________________
[1] After Acts 15, Paul becomes the central apostle, whose acts we are following.
[2] “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ (Psalm 69:25) and, “‘May another take his place of leadership’ (Psalm 109:8).
[3] These Jews are probably members of the Diaspora: shortly after Jesus died, there was an unsuccessful Jewish rebellion (68-73 CE) against the Romans [which led to the destruction of the temple (70 CE).] As a result, many Judeans had to flee for their lives. This dispersion was throughout the Mediterranean world and these dispersed Jews are members of the now commonly called Diaspora. However, “We have seen that this Dispersion had [actually] begun six centuries before in the Babylonian Captivity, and had been renewed in the settling of Alexandria.” Will Durant, Caesar and Christ. (TSC 3: New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944), 545. Those present here would be from the earlier group as Acts is set before the destruction of the temple and some even argue that the scene in Acts 2 actually takes place in the temple.
[4] Thus the name Pentecost from the Hebrew he pentekoste "fiftieth"
[5] There is much discussion about whether or not Luke was making specific reference to this event at the time of his writing; regardless of whether this was an intentional parallel drawn by the author of Luke, the symbolism seems to be divinely intentioned. Cf. Robert W. Wall, Acts. (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2002), 57-58, for a thorough discussion of this.
[6] This continues to this day. Also cf. R.C.H Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 57.
[7] The first time (Exod. 31:18); The second time, according to the Exodus account, Moses is required to do the writing himself (Exod. 34:1; but cf. Dt. 10:1)
[8] In John’s narrative (John 20:19-23), The disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit before Jesus has gone to ‘his Father’s house.’ This may be a different record of the same event; however, it may not. This appearance of the Holy Spirit is not an act unique to Acts II.
[9] Robert W. Wall, p. 54. : [Some] interpreters posit a new dispensation has dawned when the Holy Spirit through the Messiah mediates a new covenant. (cf. Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 8:2).
[10] Cf. Willimon, p. 28.
[11] These tongues are also an obvious fulfilment of Luke 3:16: ‘He shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” They may however also represent the altar with its holy fire. Fire is also a symbol of purity and purification, cf. also Lenski, p. 59.
[12] Fredrick Frye Bruce, The Book of Acts. (TNICNT: Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988), 54.
[13] Certainly readers of Matthew would understand this, as one of the themes of Matthew is that Jesus is ‘the new Moses.’
[14] Jesus himself compares the coming of the Spirit to the wind, see John 3:8.
[15] R.C.H Lenski, p. 58: “This mighty sound was surely a symbol of power, and we may recall that both the Hebrew and the Greek words for Spirit, Ruach and IIamven denote wind or breath.” Some also suggest that the ‘whole house’ referred to in this verse here may actually be an allusion to the Temple, which was destroyed in 70 AD.
[16] See John 3:8 where Jesus himself compared the coming of the Spirit to the blowing of the wind.
[17] It is significant here, I believe, that Luke quoted the Greek text. He was able to thus make a strong intentional link then with the word ‘Lord’.
[18] This is reminiscent of Jesus’ appearance to Peter right after Peter had denied him and he was crucified.
[19] Cf. Robert W. Wall. pp. 66-67.
[20] Cf. NT Wright, The Problem of Evil and the Justice of God.
[21] Ibid.
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