A People for His Name

The Incredible Mercy of God!

May 31, 2011

Brought before the Jewish Council (Matt. 26:57-62), Jesus bore testimony to them that He was the Christ, the Son of God (27:63). For His affirming that truth, they condemned Him to die (27:65-66).

Some time later, Stephen was brought before the Jewish council (Acts 6:8-12), which no doubt at that time still had on it many of the same people who were on it when Jesus was brought before them. God then allowed many of the same people who had condemned Jesus to death to hear the same truth from Stephen (7:56) that they had heard from Jesus (Matt. 27:63) but rejected. They responded by putting Stephen to death (Acts 7:57-60).

Through Stephen, therefore, God allowed many of those who had been responsible for condemning His Son to death to hear again the truths that they needed to hear to be saved. Sadly, however, they rejected the truth yet again.

For these people who had in a horrific way more than once rejected God’s salvation, Stephen, as he was dying, prayed that their sins would not be laid to their charge (7:60). Through Stephen’s remarkably gracious prayer, God testified to them His desire for them to be spared the punishment that they so richly deserved for their sins.

The incredible mercy of God shines forth brilliantly in His dealings with these who put His Son to death and martyred Stephen. Truly, He is a God who delights in mercy!

In Interpretation

Prayer Testimony

May 30, 2011

In high school, I suffered at the hands of a few people who persecuted me although I had never done anything wrong to them. In study hall one day, one of these thugs came up behind me and punched me in the back very hard.

I hated him for years after that incident. I remember my wanting to take a baseball bat and smash his head in because of how he had unjustly injured me.

After I was saved, God changed me so that instead of wanting revenge, I prayed for his salvation. Through His Spirit’s work in my life, He made me one who prayed for my persecutors the way Jesus taught: “Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). Praise God for His marvelous grace!

Has God made you a new creature in Christ? If He has, there will be real changes in your life.

Have you experienced such changes? If not, I urge you to turn to Christ while there is yet time.

In Prayer

The Gospel Ministry of John the Baptist

May 29, 2011

Luke relates the message (3:7-17) of John the Baptist, the God-appointed predecessor of Christ (3:3-6). In fulfillment of the prophecies in Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3, John was “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (3:3; cf. Mark 1:2-3).

When multitudes came out to be baptized by him, John challenged them about the need to bear fruit in their lives to show that they had truly repented (3:7-14). His challenge included clear statements about future wrath (3:7, 9).

John’s preaching climaxed with a statement of Christ as God’s judicial agent: “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (3:17; cf. Mark 9:42-49). As the coming Judge, He will both save and destroy.

In 3:18, Luke states that John the Baptist continued to minister the gospel (εὐηγγελίζετο, imperfect indicative) by preaching many other things (πολλὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἓτερα παρακαλῶν εὐηγγελίζετο τὸν λαόν). This concluding statement shows that the Spirit recorded John’s identification of Christ as God’s judicial executor (3:17) as the final statement of this record of John’s proclamation of the gospel.

The parallel account in Matthew 3:7-12 ends with the same statement of Christ’s judicial agency. Both Matthew and Luke, therefore, teach that John’s ministry of proclaiming the gospel included proclaiming Christ as Judge.

After centuries of silence, God directed John the Baptist to begin declaring a message that powerfully challenged people to repent and believe (cf. Acts 19:4) in Jesus in view of His judicial work as God’s Christ. The New Testament record shows that later Christ (Matt. 4:17, 23; 5-7) and His apostles (Acts 2) preached the gospel with messages very similar in content.

The precedent established by John’s message as well as the messages of Christ and His apostles argues for the continued evangelistic proclamation of Christ as God’s judicial agent.

In Dissertation, Evangelism, Gospel

"Burnt Alive"

May 28, 2011

As Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons went to sleep in their station wagon on January 22, 1999, they surely had no idea what was soon to happen to them:

. . . [Dara] Singh and his mob approached [them] at around 12:20 a.m. . . ., running [in] from the fields, armed with lathis [sticks] and trishuls (tridents – three-pronged spears). . . . [A]s they approached [the station wagon], they began screaming.
Singh struck first, wielding an axe at the tyres, deflating them. The others broke windows and prevented the Staines from escaping. Graham was beaten mercilessly and his boys were not spared either. All three were pierced with trishuls. Singh then put straw under the vehicle and torched it. In seconds, the vehicle was on fire. Graham held his two boys close to him. Anyone who knew him would say that the one name on his lips would be—Christ Jesus.
The killers stood there and watched the three roast alive as the fire consumed the vehicle.

—Burnt Alive: The Staines and the God They Loved, 35

As the news of the martyrdom of this great man and his two sons spread around the world, speedy and widespread criticism abounded for this horrific display of inhuman wickedness. The authorities dealt with the perpetrators, punishing them for murdering these helpless people.

Graham Staines and his sons suffered martyrdom for the sake of their faith. Let us allow the memory of their martyrdom to motivate us to be true to Him even as they were.

In Quotes

Guitar Music for "Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart"

May 27, 2011

Melody and chords for Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart in my format for guitar.

In Guitar Music

The Only Inspired Record of the Final Words of a Christian Martyr

May 26, 2011

The final verses of Acts 7 provide us with the only inspired record of the final words of a Christian martyr. The uniqueness of this revelation is interesting because Scripture informs us that other believers were also martyred (James [Acts 12:2]; Peter [John 21:18-19]), but God for some reason did not choose to give us any information about their final words.

Luke records the two prayers that Stephen prayed before he died:

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep (7:59-60).

Both prayers address someone as Lord. Both prayers parallel prayers by Jesus on the Cross (Luke 23:34, 46).

The first prayer was to Jesus as Lord and concerned Stephen himself. The second prayer concerned Stephen’s persecutors.

When I wrote my dissertation, I argued that Stephen prayed both prayers to Jesus. I was challenged by a committee member who held that Stephen prayed his second prayer not to Jesus, but to the Father.

Whom do you think that he prayed to (Jesus or the Father) and why do you think that way?

In Dissertation, Interpretation, Prayer

Quotes from Church Fathers & "The Apostle's Creed"

May 25, 2011

In the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, we read of apostolic proclamation of Christ as the God-appointed Judge:

But after ten days from the ascension, which from the first Lord’s day is the fiftieth day, do ye keep a great festival: for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we were filled with His energy, and we ‘spake with new tongues, as that Spirit did suggest to us;’ and we preached both to Jews and Gentiles, that He is the Christ of God, who is ‘determined by Him to be the Judge of quick and dead.’

—The Anti-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Vol. VII, 448; emphasis added

In the Apostle’s Creed, we read concerning people who desired to be baptized:

Although the received text of the Apostle’s Creed occurs first in the eight century, the contents are essentially an expansion of the positive form (the Old Roman Symbol) of the questions asked candidates for baptism at Rome at the end of the second century. The baptizer asked the one to be baptized, ‘Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?’ After the confession, ‘I believe,’ there was the first immersion. Then the baptizer asked, ‘Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, [and was buried,] and rose from the dead and ascended in the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?’

—Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Ed., Vol. 1 A-K, 90; emphasis added

These historical records show that Apostolic and post-Apostolic ministry continued to include proclamation of God’s appointment of Christ as Judge and belief in that truth. We need to include the same points in our evangelism today. This is especially true because people have taught in our day that we should just tell people of the love of God for them and not speak to them of judgment.

In Evangelism, Quotes

Gentecost as a Fulfillment of Psalm 2:8!

May 24, 2011

More than 15 years ago, I first became aware of the importance of the Gentecost account in Acts 10. Since then, I have spent much time over the years studying that passage, including many hours in my dissertation work.

Recently, God showed me some more truth about that passage that I had never seen before. It is amazing to me that after so many years of what has often been very intense study, I am still discovering additional significance of that account!

In Psalm 2, David records the Messiah’s declaration:

I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel (2:7-9).

At the Jerusalem Council, James urged the people to listen to him and said, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14). Although there had been Gentiles saved prior to Gentecost, this statement informs us that what took place then was the first instance of God’s in an official manner taking out from the Gentiles a people for His name.

Comparing Psalm 2:8 with Acts 15:14, we learn that it was at Gentecost that the Father first began officially to give His Christ the heathen for His inheritance! Gentecost thus was a fulfillment of the Father’s promise to the Son that the Son had declared many centuries earlier!

Truly, the riches of God’s Word are inexhaustible!

In Dissertation, Interpretation

Guitar Music for "Jesus, I Am Resting"

May 23, 2011

Here are the melody and the chords for Jesus, I Am Resting in the key of G.

In Guitar Music

Profiting from the Accounts about Stephen

May 22, 2011

Five considerations about the accounts in Scripture about Stephen show that we should profit from this material:

They are inspired Scripture intended for our profit (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
Their vast overall length shows their importance – 73 verses in the NT (6:5-6; 6:8-15; 7:1-60; 8:1a; 8:2; 22:20)
The unique information they provide – the only inspired record of the final words and actions of a Christian martyr (7:56; 59-60)
The emphasis on the Spirit’s role in his life throughout the accounts (first mention of him highlights his being Spirit-filled [6:5; cf. 6:3]; irresistible ministry through the Spirit [6:10]; Spirit-filled testimony [7:55-56] and prayers [7:59-60] at his martyrdom) shows that he is an exemplary believer
Striking parallels between his experience with the Jewish council (and others) and Jesus’ experience with many of the same people (see my earlier post)

In Interpretation

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