Acts 12:20-25: Herod: Diet of Worms

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 26 June 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/11/acts-1220-25-herod-diet-of-worms.html

Father’s Day Address 2022

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 19 June 2022, by Major Michael Ramsay

 

When we refer to God as our Heavenly Father what do we mean? What are some of the traits and values common among fathers that are a reflection of the attributes of God? God loves us. He is proud of us. He is cheering for us…. We have a number of verses that we will look at on this Father’s Day that show us a little bit about God as our Heavenly Father.

 

Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '”

We fathers are proud of our kids. We enjoy their performances: school, church and community plays, musicals, recitals. We celebrate their victories as if they were our own. I have cheered many dance medals, at least one soccer medal, and academic and behavourial awards. I think this is what is meant in part by Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” God loves us. Our Heavenly Father enjoys our performances and competitions. He cheers for us like a dad cheers on his children. God is proud of us.

 

Psalm 149:4 – “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.”

I am a proud father. I have three great kids. Rebecca has a natural ability in so many things. She learned to read very early, thanks very much to Calvin and Hobbs comics. Being our eldest, we celebrated so many firsts with her. All of kids! Sarah-Grace: I often remember one play she was in in primary grades. She portrayed a character called ‘Nasty Boots’ that I think the whole town celebrated – it really was that good. She has preached many times not only here but also growing up and as a pre-teen she even went on the road preaching a sermon she wrote and it was very well received. I was so proud. Heather -even right now, at 11 years-old - is producing her own TV show. Like any dad, I am so happy to see my children succeed. So with us, even more with God.

Psalm 149:4 – “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; He adorns the humble with salvation.” God is our Father and thus like a father, I really believe that the Lord celebrates with us. He laughs with us. He cries with us. He celebrates with us. I know that in recently receiving the award from our community here, I spent quality time really thanking the Lord and spending time with God: Thanking Him for allowing and enabling me to serve Him and others. I know how I am cheering for my kids in everything they do for the Lord, and I want you all here to know that God is cheering for you and me too! And even more! He does take pleasure in us and He lavishes His love upon us.

 

1 John 3:1a – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

As fathers we are also blessed just to see our children grow up: We are excited when they speak their first word, when they take their first step. We are happy when they make a friend.

We are happy when they celebrate rites of passage: We celebrate graduation from a class, high school (or maybe university); when they get a job, when they move out (even though you miss them terribly); and then for some maybe they will go on to get married and/or have kids themselves. And maybe celebrate many more rites of passage. 1 John 3:1a – “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

 

John 16:33 – “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. “

 

2 Corinthians 1:3 - “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

 

As parents we are always concerned for our children and hope they can avoid or get through every crises and struggle. God has the same hope for us like we read earlier in Jeremiah 29:11: “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” But also John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And 2 Corinthians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

There is trouble in this world. As parents we hope and pray that our children will never fall prey to addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling, anything); we hope and pray that they are always healthy (and can come through any times when they aren’t); we hope and pray that life doesn’t knock them down too hard or too often; we hope and pray that they are resilient and will continue to get up when life knocks them down (and learn from it too!) – for in this world there will be trouble but God has overcome the world. And as we have every confidence that our children can get through, God has every confidence in us too. We hope and pray that our children will receive comfort from us and we hope and we pray that they will experience the comfort that the Lord offers to each and everyone of us, even and especially in our most challenging times. The Lord, our Heavenly Father loves us even more than we love our earthly children - as impossible as it may seem that anyone could love more than we love our kids, our Heavenly Father does. We hope and pray, with the Lord, that our children are never consumed by hate, fear, or sin. Hate, fear and sin can paralyze us. But love trumps hate and God, our Father, loves us

 

Matthew 10:29-31 – “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

 

Proverbs 3:11-12 – “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in.”

 

When the Bible talks about sin, I really think it is often referring to an Heavenly Father trying to point His children away from trouble. I don’t think sins are a list of things that bad people do. It is more like something we do or something that happens which puts us in harms way (missing the mark). Or it is calamity, destruction and a force all of its own waiting to pounce on us. A loving Heavenly Father thus warns us like He did Can in Genesis 4:7. Remember Cain and Abel? Jealousy and rage and murder are about to consume Cain and entice him to murder His brother and so God (who loves Cain every bit as much as He loves Abel) gets his attention and says, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” God loves us all and He desires for us to overcome sin and to overcome the world as He has overcome the world.

 

Luke 12:32 – “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

 

Our children are among the most precious things in the world to us. God loves us even more than we love our own children. Just like our heart is full when our children make things for us – a picture, or a poem – so is God’s heart when we make things for Him. Just like our heart is full when they do things for us like make a party, mow the lawn, or clean the house; so is God’s heart full when we do things for Him. Just like our hearts are full when our children do things for each other; so God’s heart is full when we do things for one another. Just like my heart is full when I see my children helping and doing things for anyone in need; so God’s heart is full when we help out others in need (either personally, through our Army here, or in other ways). Just like our heart is full even just seeing our children together, so is God’s heart full seeing His children here together. And just like my heart is overflowing when my children are together with me celebrating and enjoying life, I can’t even tell you how much God loves to see each and everyone of you here with Him and each other today. God is a Father to each and everyone of us and His heart is filled and overflowing with joy to have you come together with His other children just to see Him and spend time with Him on this Father’s Day – just like any other day. He loves you.

 

So on this Father’s Day, let us come before our Heavenly Father and know that He is proud of us and He loves us and He wishes the best for us, He will never leave us nor forsake us and He will always be here for us even until the end of the age. Let is pray.

 

Akin to Coles Notes on Acts 2 for 2022

 by Captain Michael Ramsay (This is the 2022 version presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries)

  

Click here to read the original version presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 August 2007 and Swift Current Corps 23 May 2010 and 17 May 2015: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/acts-2-act-ii-scene-1.html 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

  

As last Sunday was Pentecost, We are going to look at Acts 2 today. Acts is a neat book. Did you know that it is the only history (book) in the NT? Did you know that the books Acts and Luke were written by the same author and these books actually comprise more than 30% of the NT.

 

Acts always reminds me of a play. Maybe it’s the name (Act 2, scene 1). But particularly in the first part, Acts reminds me of a Shakespearian play. Anyone remember studying Shakespeare in school?

 

Here’s quiz for you. Who can name the play these quotes are from:

1.    ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’

2.    “To be or not to be, that is the question”

3.    “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 the author, Luke, to communicate VERY dramatic REAL events and he attributes to Peter some amazing speeches that could cause the post-modern reader to recall Mark Anthony, Lady MacBeth, or Hamlet.

 

Luke paints the scenes and recalls speeches that we will look at today beautifully. Pentecost has been called the ‘birth of the church’ which may or may not be all that accurate. I guess whether or not Pentecost is the birth of the church depends on what you mean by the church. If the church is people who worship God, people were doing that prior to Pentecost; if the birth of the church relates to the rite of baptism as some claim, that was clearly instituted in the Gospels already; dido if it relates to evangelism or the appearance and indwelling of the Holy Spirt – See John Chapter 20. I think Pentecost is a very significant event that symbolizes or illustrates the birth of the church. Just like we have just celebrated the Queens’s platinum jubilee. The day we celebrated it was not the date that her father died – February 6^th. In the US too they observe their Presidents’ birthdays on different days than they were actually born. So too possibly Pentecost. Now whether Pentecost is the Church’s actual birthday or not, it certainly has become the Day of Observing the Church’s birthday. That was all a bit of a tangent. Nonetheless, God’s Spirit really does appear at Pentecost and creates unity out of diversity, releasing the disciples to proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.

 

Acts really does remind me of a play and just before we open the curtain on Acts II, we 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 together to celebrate Pentecost. Picture this with me as I read from the first verses:

 

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! – Do you remember Coles Notes? The 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 the book of 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 (Ex 34:22; Dt 15:10, 16:9-12; Nu 28:26-31), feast of harvest (Ex 23:16), the day of first fruits (Ex 34:22; Nu 28:26; Lv 23:9-14) and this is neat: Pentecost occurs on the 50th day after the Sabbath Passover (Ex 19:1) and in Acts II it is about 50 days after Jesus was crucified and the disciples were scattered and now 50 days later they are gathering together in prayer and Christian unity.

 

There would also be a note on the name ‘Moses’. The Judean festival of Pentecost is a time to celebrate God giving the Law to Moses: Remember the Ten Commandments and how Moses climbs the Mountain (Ex. 19-20, 31, 34; Dt. 4-5, 10) and God writes the 10 Commandments on the stone tablets with his own finger (Ex 31:18; Dt. 4:13, 10:1) and when Moses returns from the mountain his face is literally radiant (Ex 34:29-35): it’s shining and in Jewish tradition, everyone heard the Law read out in their own tongue. And also remember when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, how did God lead them? Remember the fiery a cloud: it looked like tongue of cloud by day; pillar of fire by night. All the events recorded in Acts 2 I think are meant to link Jesus to Moses as a deliver – and those present in this scene are probably beginning to understand that.

 

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?

There would also be a note beside Acts 2:6: “each one heard them speaking in his own language;” some have compared this passage to an un-doing, as it were, of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9). Do you remember that story? The people provoke God by disobeying His command to scatter and fill the earth by the building of this tower and as a result, the people are made to babble in different languages. God confuses their speech. But now what happens in Acts II? The opposite. Christians become unified. Instead of language being confused, people can actually now hear the Gospel proclaimed in their OWN language.

 

There is so much more relating the Spirit of God in Acts 2 like comparing the creation of the church to the creation of the world – the word for Spirit and wind are exactly the same - that we just don’t have time to get into today, but this is all part of the world and understanding of those present. They understand as the scene unfolds and as Peter continues to speak that Jesus is the Christ, and that we together have killed our Christ.

 

These people now standing in front of Peter as he delivers something akin to a masterful Shakespearian soliloquy – they are like repentant children in front of the principal, realising that they’ve done something terribly wrong. They realise that Jesus is the Christ and they realize (PAUSE) that they’ve killed him; we’ve killed him. And now Jesus is back from the dead. If we didn’t know the ending, it could be like a 1970s horror movie. You wrongfully kill someone and they come back from the dead to set things right! The people in our text today are hoping against hope to somehow make it right (cf. John 21:15-17 re: Peter’s own restoration) when in a spirit of good repentant Christian unity: 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?”

 

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. Jesus is ushering in this Kingdom of God.  And what does this Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of Christian unity and of forgiveness. It is a Kingdom –like the Lord’s Prayer says - where we, in perfect unity, 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 does as one is united in Christ with fellow Christians as a part of God’s Kingdom? We repent (This doesn’t just mean change our way of acting – it means change our whole way of thinking). We repent – we believe that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead and Jesus is Lord. We believe and are baptised (which in the text here is an initiation ceremony through which the early Christians are united); we must be initiated and united in the Kingdom of Forgiveness of Sins and the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus – and this is everything.

 

Peter says in the text “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Holy Spirit who is at creation and this is the same Holy Spirit who is at Pentecost and it is the same Holy Spirit who is with us today. The Bible promises us, Acts 2:39 that, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Isn’t that glorious? Isn’t this wonderful? Isn’t this amazing?

 

And look what it says, just before the curtain closes on our scene here in Acts II: Our words that we are supposed to hold as our own today. It says that as they are gathered together in Christian unity that - Verse 47- “day by day the Lord added to their number those being saved.” How wonderful? How marvellous?

 

And may it be continue to be so. Come; let us pray for a unity of the Spirit in our lives. Come let us pray that Christ will be our light. Amen.