Receive Power

 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

This power Christians receive, about which Jesus spoke and Luke wrote, is nothing they can manufacture for themselves. Notice the verb “will receive.” The power comes from the Holy Spirit (God). God gives it freely to Christians. This power is part of God’s power and provides believers with the ability to do what God tells them. God gives the ability to do what He commands. This power is part of God’s ability; He can do anything and everything.

With the power of God in them given by God Himself, what was Jesus’ command to His followers? Jesus said Christians are to be witnesses. Witnesses see and hear what God does and says. Witnesses can attest to God's actions and words. Their statements—testimonies—give credence and more power (more punch) so people are more inclined towards believing about God and believing in Jesus.

In Acts 1:8, Luke recorded when Jesus said the Holy Spirit will give Christians the power and ability to serve Jesus by testifying about Him. God expects and empowers believers to hear, see, obey, and then tell other people about Jesus. He compels them by the Holy Spirit, who lives within them, to tell other people. As Christians grow closer to God, it becomes harder to disobey God—His conviction through the Holy Spirit and power within them—and their love for Jesus. Love for God (Father, Son, and Spirit) compels Christians to obey, act, and say what Gods commands, compels, and empowers them to do with His ability.

Understanding that the command, compulsion, and power to obey comes from God makes it easier for the believer to tell whom and go to wherever He leads easier. Love for God makes it easier each day to go further from our safe space, from family, and from friends. That love for God and from Him makes it possible to go far to be a witness about God and the gospel. It helps believers realize no matter where they are, God is already there and always with them. Going far away is easier when your love for God is greater than your love for yourself, your dreams and plans, your parents, siblings, grandparents, and your friends. When God is your everything, He becomes closer to you than these people and things; He becomes mother, father, brother, sister, and friend in your heart. A Christian does not leave these behind but finds that love for God fulfills the love you need.

This means going to your city (Jerusalem), your state (Judea), your country (elsewhere in your country, like Samaria), and the world are easier because of your love for God and His for you. Going and telling is easier because God empowers you with His ability. Witnessing about God is easier because no doubt exists in your mind that God compels and sends you. Obeying is easier because God’s love in you causes you to love the people you have not yet met. God’s love in you gives you immeasurable concern for their spiritual eternity and their lostness—lack of salvation and lack of relationship with God.

Christians’ love for God and people is immense due to their relationship with God and belief in Jesus, making sharing the gospel a necessity. You will stretch yourself so that all people listen to testimony about Jesus. Your relationship with God fulfills you completely, so you lack nothing - family, friends, home, power, purpose, hope, and future. God fulfills each of these needs; He becomes your everything.

What excuse do you allow to keep you from a greater relationship with God, a relationship that comes from obeying Him by being filled with His power and ability?

What excuse do you give for not witnessing about Jesus to people?

God wants to be everything you need. Do not let a human excuse keep you from the abundance of God and from God. Believe and bear witness about Jesus.

The Substitute

 

I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 (NIV)

Jesus said this in His Sermon on the Mount. He pointed out that the people the Israelites looked up to as righteous were not righteous enough to be with God in His kingdom. This must have concerned them. The hearers of Jesus that day must have wondered how they could be with God in eternity. I am sure Jesus realized what was in the hearts and minds of the people listening to Him that day. He already had the plan in place. God has had the plan in place since time began of how sinful people, people He loves, can be with Him. He knows holiness cannot exist together with sin. That is not a choice, but a fact. Where sin is, no holiness exists, just like where holiness is, no sin can exist. Other writers and speakers give this example. When one enters a completely sealed and dark room, no light exists, but as soon as a person strikes a match, darkness is shattered, and the light pushes it away.

With that idea, we should consider what Jesus offers so people could be with God. The people on the mountain that day realized He had been speaking about God and eternal life with Him. Jesus taught them the Beatitudes, about what is more important than gathering things for yourself in this life. He explained that what is in a person causes the sin and offered His listeners a glimpse at the new covenant. Jesus explained He fulfilled the Law and brought the new covenant based on God’s mercy and grace. Nothing people can do can earn it for them. The first covenant required the Israelites to obey the Ten Commandments, which the religious leaders expanded to 622 regulations. Jesus said He fulfilled those laws in the Sermon on the Mount. With His life and death, Jesus provided what was necessary for redemption from sins forever and for each believer to have eternal life.

This idea that one must be righteous is not new to the New Testament. From God’s laws, the Israelites knew He required twice daily sin sacrifices to atone for their sins, their wrongdoings. These animal sacrifices were never enough for the complete and permanent cleansing of the sins they committed. Nothing a person could do would make the stains from sins and the condemnation because of sins go away permanently. Yet, God declared righteous some people in the Old Testament. If we are familiar with the Old Testament, we remember of a few people from memory, like Elijah, Moses, David, and Abraham. There were others, too, who God stated were righteous. Consider Ezekiel 14:12-23. Four times, in His condemnation of Jerusalem, God compared Noah, Daniel, and Job as having a righteousness that exceeds any person in Jerusalem. He stated explicitly in verses 14, 16, 18, & 20, “Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, their righteousness would save no one but themselves, says the Sovereign LORD.” God declared Noah, Daniel, and Job righteous because of their faith. (Hebrews 11:7, Job 1:1. In the book of Daniel, Daniel told the king the interpretation from God of the dreams God had given the king. By doing this, he was a prophet of God. God called His prophets righteous in Hebrew 11:32, & 39-40) God, with the first covenant with the Israelites agreed upon at Mount Sinai, declared the Israelites His people, His nation. This first covenant was to lead them to Him and let other nations know they are His people, whom He will protect. It provided for their faithlessness to their covenant with Him by explaining what He would do to discipline/punish them. This first covenant to the Israelites, the Mosaic covenant, provided no means of eternal salvation by works or by offering animal, grain, and oil sacrifices. Some of the Israelites intentionally sought and believed God deeply. They changed their lives to follow how He led them. Each of these Israelites allowed God to be the Sovereign LORD of their lives, just as God stated in Ezekiel 14.

God declared several Old Testament people righteous because of their belief in Him that led them to revere, love, and follow Him with their lives. Understand, He did not love just a few people. God loves all people. He seeks to have a personal relationship with each person. God understood the first covenant was not one giving redemption. That’s why He planned from creation to give a second covenant. That second covenant occurred when Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross and buried, three days after which He rose from death. Jesus conquered sin and death with this Messianic covenant. No other sacrifice does a person need to offer for his or her sins. Belief in Jesus, with the individual’s profession of faith in Him, and a confession and repentance of his or her sins brings the person into a saving, cleansing, eternal relationship with God. Nothing else. No one’s faith can provide salvation for anyone else.

God told Ezekiel to tell the people of Jerusalem that having God-fearing and righteous people in their city would not keep them from God’s righteous judgment and wrath. His wrath came because of their repeated sins against Him, each other, and other nations. They could not rest on the righteousness of others-not priest, prophet, grandparent, parent, or siblings, etc. No one is righteous except through God declaring them so.

When a person believes in Jesus Christ and He washes the sins of that person from his or her record, then God declares the person clean and righteous, just like He declared Noah, Daniel, Job, Abraham, Moses, and others of the Bible righteous. God provided a way for each person to be declared clean and righteous with the sacrificial death of His sinless Son in substitution for each of us. We do not have to die an eternal death of separation from God. By our belief and because of His grace, God will declare a person righteous. Paul said this in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

None of us knows where another person truly stands in his or her relationship with God, but we each realize where we ourselves stand. Do you have a saving faith in Jesus? Do you believe Jesus is God’s Son, who died the death you deserve because of your sins against God? God will apply the death of Jesus against your sin judgment. He will apply His resurrection from the dead to you so that you will live eternally with Him in His kingdom. Now is your chance to confess your sins to God and repent of them asking Him to give you the direction and strength to avoid temptation and live a righteous life? What keeps you from believing in Him and receiving His grace?

As it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

²³ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

(Romans 3:10-18 & 23 [NIV])

Heart Check

“My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.” John 7:16 [NASB]

Consider a medieval knight. If he heard his lord call his knights immediately to go to battle, would the knight have time to put on all his armor? Would he go to battle without knowing whom he would battle? Would he blindly hear and answer the call to charge? If he did any of these things, he would be ill-prepared for battle. The places of his body without the armor he left behind in his haste would be the places the enemy would attack most fiercely. The enemy who he thought he might fight wouldn’t be the one who attacked his lord that day and he would fall to their unconsidered strength. This knight is like us. Consider what Jesus told his brothers and other Jews in John 7.

Jesus’ brothers expected that Jesus would go to Jerusalem for the feast week. Why would they expect that? Because He was a Jew by birth, and because they expected He would want to be with the people to preach, teach, and heal. Jesus surprised them by saying He wouldn’t go. He said, “My time is not yet here.” (vs. 6)

We read later in John 7 Jesus went to the feast in Jerusalem. He went up secretly. Now Jesus’ intention for going to Jerusalem contrasted to what His brothers wanted in verses three and four. They said, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” Jesus’ brothers did not understand Jesus wasn’t trying to gain fame. His going to Jerusalem would be in secret because He realized the religious leaders were trying to kill Him, but He had not yet completed the task for which the Father sent Him, to preach to all the Jews about the grace and salvation God offers. Jesus didn’t go with His brothers because they wanted Him to go for the wrong reasons. He went secretly so people would listen to Him sincerely, not just gawk at the famed man who came preaching new things and healing people. Those gawking people would have come to see the famous man from Galilee, not to listen to His teaching.

Still, when the people found Jesus and listened to Him, not all accepted His teaching as truth. Some challenged Him, and these were not only the Jewish religious leaders. Verse fifteen says, “The Jews then were astonished, saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’” These people challenged Jesus’ teaching because a rabbi or any man of the Levitical order had not taught Him. His father, Joseph, taught Him just like any good Jewish father teaches his sons. The Jews, with their words, cast stones at Jesus, just like the Jewish religious leaders wanted to cause to happen, but with real stones.

What is interesting is what Jesus said to this statement by these Jews. In verses sixteen through eighteen, Jesus said,

My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. [NASB]

With this statement, Jesus put the Jews in their place. It was a positive, verbal slap. He said if anyone is doing God’s will, he would know what Jesus taught. That Jew would recognize what Jesus taught came from the Father. How is this a slap in the face? Since the people didn’t accept Jesus’ teaching, but challenged Him, they didn’t know God and were not doing His will. Since they didn’t know God, how could they dare to judge Jesus, the man they said was uneducated. They themselves were less learned than Jesus and had no faith in God. With that, as they say now, you could hear the mic drop.

This mic drop compels us to reflect on ourselves by considering two questions. First, do we scramble to be a Jesus follower because of His fame and the fame that we would get? Being a Jesus follower should not occur because we want fame and glory. Any glory should go to God. Jesus showed in Mark 2:12 what should happen when a person encounters the miracles and teaching of God. People should glorify God. If we scramble to be Jesus followers for the fame, we aren’t God followers, but glory stealers. Did you scramble to follow Jesus because of His fame, but not consider the cost it would require? You came answering the call ill-prepared and are not wearing the whole armor. You won’t be able to stand in battle as a follower of Jesus because what you teach and preach is not truth. Seek the Lord with your whole being, He said, and you will find Him, He will save you from your sins, self, and death, and give you eternal life.

Second, do we know God and His will or are we judging God’s servants with a lack of head and heart-knowledge? How can we judge a person for what they know when we don’t know what they declare to know? Saying this, though, we need to realize to the depths of our being, God wants us to know Him, His grace, His love, and His salvation, which He offers to every person. Instead of fearing the change Jesus brings, come to know Him through salvation by giving your heart to Him, and you will find no need to judge and no right to judge Jesus and His servants. You don’t have to be ill-prepared for the battles you will face in this world. Come to know the truths of God. Come to know the battles you will face. Be prepared by the Master and Lord who calls you to Him.

We can be the soldier who goes to fight for our Lord. When we know God in truth with our whole being and love Him that way, we are armored for the battles. We know deeply and personally Whom we follow.

Put on the whole armor. Know the Lord intimately.

By these you will stand strong and God will receive the glory.

Lord, God, I come to You admitting I have failed. Each day I try to walk in Your ways, but at some point, I sin. I know You are disappointed, but You won’t let me go. I am Yours. Lord, teach me Your ways. Make me desire to be in Your presence. Lead me in Your paths for Your name sake. Clothe me completely with Your armor and use me for whatever You will, all for Your glory. You are almighty and I am not. You are Savior and I am a sinner, but one whom You have redeemed. Thank you for Your faithful love, grace, and mercy. I love You, Lord. Amen.

Stagnant, Stingy, or Streaming

Jesus said to them, ‘My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil.’ (John 7:6-7 [NASB])

As you read this conversation between Jesus and His brothers, did questions arise in your mind? Was your heart pricked? Did what Jesus say to His brothers hit home for you? Let’s consider this passage and a few others. First, let’s consider a metaphor.

Have you ever been in or heard of a boat that sprung a leak? What emotion do you think the people on the boat felt? Fear? Panic? Confusion? Doubt? Security? Faith in the boat’s ability to get you to shore? If we allow waters to flow into us that are not Living Water, we will sink. If we allow things of this world, deceiving teachers and preachers, and other religions to invade our mind and take residence there, we will sink.

After Jesus told His brothers He would not go to the feast in Jerusalem because it wasn’t His time yet, He stayed in Galilee a while longer then made His way to Jerusalem in secret. When Jesus went to Jerusalem during the feast, He entered to the temple to teach. The Jews were astonished at His teaching because the Rabbis never educated Him. Jesus challenged the religious leaders on why they wanted to kill Him. The crowd thought He had a demon. Jesus challenged both these groups of people. Others in the crowd questioned among themselves why the religious leaders had not killed Jesus yet. After that, Jesus began to teach He was from God and sent by God. The religious leaders became more fervent to seize Him while some of the crowd believed in Him. This latter caused the Pharisees to send officers to capture Jesus. Jesus challenged them again when He said, “You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” His proclamation perplexed them even more.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus told the people if anyone was thirsty to come to Him and drink. He then proclaimed, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ (John 7:38) This Living Water, John explained, was the Spirit of God who would live in everyone who believed in Jesus. The questions from above about the boat with a hole fit with this idea. Do we have Living Water flowing through us, keeping us buoyant, giving us direction, teaching and guiding us, and encouraging us? Or, do we have water flowing into us, overwhelming us, and causing us to sink? If the answer to the first question is yes, then we won’t sink, but what the Spirit, the Living Water, does in us proceeds from us to others. This Living Water is not from a stagnant, non-flowing pond or lake. It comes from a continually flowing source of water, from the throne of God, and it brings nourishment to us and to others we meet. Jesus meant this when He said “rivers of living water” will flow. Will flow is a continuous verb. It starts at a point in time when a person believes in Jesus and continues forever from God.

What are we doing with the water that arises in our lives? Are we grabbing a pail to bail it out of our boats? Or, are we allowing the Living Water, not the world’s idea of water, complete reign in our lives so when people see, listen to, or receive help from us, they recognize God and see, hear, and receive from Him? If we don’t believe in Jesus, all we have is stagnant water by which we can quench our thirst, but not grow or have eternal life. If we believe in Jesus, we will have Living Water and eternal life with Christ. Our water, the Living Water within us, will stream. That stream won’t be stingy, but vibrant and flowing.

Consider John 7:6-7 again. Jesus told His brothers who did not believe in Him as the Messiah their time was always opportune. The people of Jerusalem would not harm them because they did not hate them; they did not testify about Jesus being the Messiah. The world could not hate because they did not testify about Christ with their words, thoughts, or actions.

It is our time to go to our Jerusalem and proclaim Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Do you believe in Him? Do you have Living Water living in you? Or, do you just have ordinary water? If the latter, the world will not hate you because you are of the world and, like them, you do not have eternal life. If you answer yes to the first two questions, what is keeping you from allowing the Living Water to continue to flow through you?

Are you stagnant, stingy, or streaming?

Be a living witness of Jesus Christ as your Savior

by allowing the Living Water to flow inside and from you.

Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.   (Colossians 2:6-7 [NASB])

Lord, so many times I have failed to be a living witness to You as I go through my days. I allow my to do list to keep me from seeing You work or obeying You. I’ve allowed my plans and agendas to master me instead of allowing You to be my Master. When this happens, I become easily frustrated in the day and my emotions become my master. Lord, help me continually to be aware of You each day. Grow me from the root You planted in me so I continue to walk in You. Establish my faith in You so nothing formed against me will make me fall and fail You. Lord, build me on the foundation Christ became for me so I stand strong for You. Use me as Your instrument to share the Living Water to other people so they will come to know You and grow in their faith in You. I have failed You, Lord, but make me grow so I fail you less with each new day coming. Thank you for Your love, grace, and mercy. Without these from You, I would fall. Thank you for being Creator, Savior, and Master of all things. In Jesus name, Amen.

Nations Will Know

When we become Christians by profession of faith and cleansing from sin, God calls us His own and makes us sacred for Him and His purposes. The Israelites experienced this same calling to be sacred/holy for and by God. God chose the people of Israel to be His people. He led them through a desert after rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. God prepared a place for them the people had never known. He was their Savior and Provider.

The Israelites did not quite understand and within a few years, the land of Israel split in two. Israel, the northern tribes, led by abominable kings and a queen, fell away from God and His purposes. The southern kingdom of Judah, in which Jerusalem lay and contained His temple, grew stubborn and rebellious later than the northern kingdom. They like all people sinned against God by being stubborn and insubordinate towards God and His laws, ordinances, and statues.

Each of these 12 tribes God called His own and made them sacred because of His choosing and calling. He set them up as the nation of God, a theocracy, to shine His light to the surrounding nations. The surrounding nations saw or heard about the Israelites’ God as they journeyed 40 years to the Promised Land. They knew of God’s power, might, provision, love, and salvation.

When the Judahites became impudent and stubborn (3:7), God sent His servant, a man called by Him to prophesy, to tell the people of Judah of His judgment against them because of their rebelliousness. Ezekiel first enacted God’s judgment then proclaimed it. He dared not proclaim it because God said the blood of the people, if he did not warn them, would be upon Ezekiel’s hands.

With 5:7-9, & 15, God through Ezekiel proclaimed,

Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold I, even I, and against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of nations. And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again.’

‘So, it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror to the nations who surround you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging rebukes.’ I, the LORD, have spoken. [NASB]

The sacredness of the Israelites did not exempt them from God’s punishment, His judgment. Rather, as the loving Father, His love for the Israelites required Him to punish them to bring them back to Him. God sent them to be a light proclaiming Him as the One and Only God. Instead, the Judahites followed the gods of other nations. The people who were to shine a light for Yahweh, of whom the surrounding nations knew about, instead shone a light on their disobedience and rebellion.

Because of God’s love for the Judahites, He rebuked and punished them. When you near the end of Ezekiel, God proclaimed He would bring a remnant of the original Judahites back to the land He promised to them. They would still be His people called by Him to be a beacon. The people of Israel would either be a beacon for God’s love by their obedience or through their disobedience and God’s faithfulness to them carried out through judgment.

Each of us who are Christians have this same responsibility. We can be the sacred light of God to the people who surround us with our acts, words, and thoughts of love toward God and other people. We can live our lives obeying God or we can do what we want and be disobedient. This freewill is one of God’s gifts to humans. If, however, we choose in our freewill to walk away from God, He will chastise or rebuke us so we turn around and return to Him. Either way, God’s glory shines because of His love for us-a love so great He would discipline us. Just as the prodigal’s return brings great joy and the father’s love shines from his eyes on his son or daughter who returned, so the Father’s love and joy shine and He receives glory and praise when His child returns to Him after walking away.

I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and your truth reaches to the skies. Be exalted, oh God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth. (Psalm 108:3-4 [NASB])

Lord, help me be obedient to You and Your will each day. Lead me back to Your presence and forgive me when I turn away from You. Let Your name be praised and glorified in all I do and all You do to and through me. For You are glorious, oh Lord. Amen.

Offering Total Surrender: A Psalm 51:18-19 Devotional

With verses eighteen and nineteen, David concludes his psalm to God that people call “The Sinner’s Prayer.” In the prior five devotionals written on other verses of Psalm 51, we learned David recognized his sin and understood God as loving, kind, compassionate, and omnipotent. He realized he sinned against God and only God could cleanse him from his sin and guilt. David pled with God and asked Him to purify him ceremonially and wash him spiritually. He asked for his joy and gladness to be restored to him. David asked God to create a clean heart and renewed spirit within him. He realized his unworthiness to live in God’s presence or have His Spirit live in him. David asked God not to cast him away from Him or remove His Spirit. He knew he did not deserve God’s forgiveness. David understood with God’s cleansing, re-creating his heart, and renewing his spirit, he was God’s child and would live forever with Him. He had a basic understanding of the Messianic hope the New Testament reveals to and for humanity. David recognized God’s greatness and salvation as opposed to his sinfulness and finiteness. He realized he had nothing worthy to give to God in gratitude and love that was sufficient for what God did in his life except to give his greatest possession – his life.

With these words, David continued to speak to God in this Psalm. He said in Psalm 51:18-19, “By Your favor do good to Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.” With these two verses, David showed he understood his sins affect other people. The decisions he made, whether good or bad, affected the people immediately around him and the people he led – Israel. Have you ever considered the decisions you make affect people and the surrounding environment? More often than not, when we are most determined to have our own way, we do not think consider how the decision will affect other people or the environment. David understood this.

David asked God to show His favor and do good to Zion. What did he mean in this sentence? Notice David used the proper noun, Zion, in this part of verse eighteen, but used “Jerusalem” in the second half of the verse. Was he repeating himself for emphasis? Did David mean the people of Jerusalem both times? Zion is the mountain upon which David built his palace. It is the highest mountain in Jerusalem. Zion basically means “fortification.” Zion and the City of David are the same place – where David conquered the Jebusites and established as his fortification, his palace. The people in David’s fortification were his soldiers, servants, wives, and children - the people closest to him for whom for whom David was imminently responsible. David asked God not to punish Zion – the people for which he was imminently responsible – for his own personal sins. With this understanding of Zion, we can understand the favor of which David spoke. He requested God give His delight and pleasure to the people of Zion instead of discipline for which only he deserved. David realized his sins affected other people and asked God not to hold them against innocent people.

When David spoke of Jerusalem in the second half of this verse, he referred to the capital of the united nation – all Israelites. He asked God to establish Israel and cause them to continue, not to discipline them for his sins and cause their destruction.  David realized, as the leader of the nation, his sins affected himself, those closest to him, and the nation. He knew God’s righteousness and justice required discipline for sin and did not want every Israelite punished for the wrong he did. This verse shows David’s heart. He had the care of the nation in his mind and prayed for them to God. He was not a selfish leader, but one who sought the best for the people of God’s nation. Do national leaders today consider their actions and decisions as affecting the people they lead and, so choose not to do them if they do not help the nation? Many national leaders do not consider the welfare of their people, only of themselves. This same principle applies to leaders of organizations and businesses, too. Are leaders concerned for the welfare of their people primarily and of self secondarily? Do they realize negative consequences will befall their people and themselves for selfish decisions they make? Each of us is a leader in one way or another and we each must consider this before we act or speak.

With verse nineteen, David explained God’s accepting of the people of Zion and Jerusalem meant they were righteous and not guilty of his sin. They could offer righteous and acceptable sacrifices to Him. These sacrifices David spoke of were burnt and whole burnt offerings of young bulls on His altar. The sacrifices David mentioned are important. Moses taught about burnt sacrifices offered to God in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Burnt sacrifices were the highest level of sacrifice in the Old Testament. The word “burnt” comes from the Hebrew word ‘olah. It means “ascent,” literally going up in smoke. Smoke from the burnt sacrifice rose as a soothing aroma to Him (Exodus 29:18). The parts that made the most aroma were where the fat of the animal was. The burnt offering was the complete burning of every part of the animal except the skin, which the priests kept. Burnt sacrifices were for festal (Numbers 28:11-29:39), daily (Exodus 29:38-42 & Numbers 38:3-8), Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10), occasional, and voluntary offerings (Numbers 7 & 1 Kings 8:64). Of most of these sacrifices, the priest apportioned the meat between God and the people who offered the sacrifice to Him. They offered it to renew their relationship with God (Leviticus 1:9 & 6:8-13). These offerings were a social feast and a giving back to God. David meant the people of Zion and Jerusalem could offer righteous burnt offerings in keeping covenant with God. Do we need to go before God with offerings to celebrate and renew our relationship with Him? How long has it been since you spent time with and honored Him with your self and your offering?

Besides the “burnt offerings” David first mentioned in verse nineteen, he stated God would accept their “whole burnt offerings” because their righteousness was untainted by his sin. These “whole burnt offerings” were different because people were to give the whole offering solely for God’s pleasure. No part of the offering would be eaten by the people offering it. Only four other offerings mentioned in the Old Testament were exclusively for God – the vegetable and cereal offerings, and the offerings of a bull by a priest for himself or for the people for sins, the latter of which burned outside the camp/city. The whole burnt offering, other than the four just mentioned, was not for atonement and sacrament, but communion with and devotion to Yahweh God. The people received no part of the sacrifice. This offering was a voluntary honorific sacrifice of the best and most costly possession the person had – a bull. The person who gave a bull gave voluntarily from that which God blessed him. The bull was the most costly sacrifice as compared to other animals God said were acceptable for other offerings like a ram, dove, or lamb. By doing this, the person/people offered complete surrender to God’s service. This whole burnt offering, too, foreshadowed the Messiah’s offering of Himself for the salvation of humankind. Would you give your most valued possession as an offering to God to be totally surrendered for His purposes as a promise to commit yourself completely to Him? A whole burnt offering in David’s time implied this.

What are you willing to give today to honor God in total surrender to Him?

Going to Jerusalem

Acts 21:1-14

            I have been studying the life of Paul for ten months. I have read and taught a Sunday School lesson on this passage of Scripture. Until this week, I never realized the number of people involved in Paul’s return to Jerusalem after his third missionary journey. Let us walk through this passage together and discover an interesting truth.

            First, a refresher is necessary on what is occurring in Paul’s life at this time. Before, Paul along with Barnabas, Luke, Silas, Timothy, John Mark, and others traveled to many cities in the Roman Empire telling people of the salvation Jesus Christ provided for sinners by His death and resurrection. By the time we intercept Paul in this passage, he finished his third missionary journey, met major resistance from Jews as he traveled, and heard the Holy Spirit tell him to return to Jerusalem. In Acts 19:21, after Paul stayed many days in Ephesus and performed many miracles, Luke recorded for the readers, “Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, ‘After I have been there, I must also see Rome.’” This passage marks the point of Paul’s return to Jerusalem for the final time. What does it mean that Paul “purposed in the Spirit?” The Greek definition of the word used here, tithemi, is putting in place or setting forth. By the prompting of the Holy Spirit, Paul ran toward the next goal God placed before him - return to Jerusalem.

In Acts 20:22-23, Paul explained more of God’s plan for him in Jerusalem when he stated, “And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” Paul confirmed this return to Jerusalem was in obedience to the Spirit of God, not his own idea. He stated he felt “bound by the Spirit.” The word "bound" in Greek means put under obligation. Paul many times told people he was a bondservant of Christ. Paul’s new venture to return to Jerusalem continues his confession of being a bondservant. He obeyed God even to returning to a place where “affliction awaits” him.

With this history in place, let us embark on our study of Acts 21:1-14. Paul went to Jerusalem because of the Holy Spirit’s prompting and his obedience to God’s will. In these fourteen verses, I find it interesting that Luke, the writer or Acts, records so many different people interacting with Paul about his return to Jerusalem. First, in verse 4, we find the disciples in Tyre heard from the Holy Spirit about what Paul would encounter in Jerusalem. Luke said, “Through the Holy Spirit” they heard and told Paul what they heard. They, who loved Paul and did not want him to experience persecution, asked him not to go to Jerusalem. These people were disciples. The word "disciples" in Greek is mathemetes, which means to be a learner or pupil. These people became Christians under Paul or another Christian preacher and did not want to see him hurt. The verse further states, “they all kept telling Paul.” The disciples and the people in their households listened to what God said through His Spirit about what Paul would find when he arrived in Jerusalem.

As we go further in these verses, we see Paul arrived in Tyre, stopped in Ptolemais for a night, and then went to Caesarea. When Paul came to Caesarea (verse 8), he went to the home of Philip, the evangelist. Philip was one of the seven set aside and consecrated by the other apostles to aid the widows and orphans of Jerusalem church (Acts 6:1-3). An evangelist is euaggelistes in Greek and means the bringer or good tidings of salvation through Christ to people who are not disciples. Philip’s four daughters were prophetesses. Prophetesses were women who spoke by divine inspiration things only known by divine revelation. Paul encountered disciples, evangelists, and prophetesses in verses 8 and 9. These people came from every level of Christian knowledge and understanding. They listened to the Holy Spirit when He said what awaited Paul’s return to Jerusalem.

In verse 10, a prophet named Agabus came from Judea and entered the scene of Paul’s return to Jerusalem. Prophets are people, moved by the Spirit of God, to declare to humankind what he received from divine inspiration, especially about future events and particularly those things relating to the cause and kingdom of God. Agabus listened to what the Holy Spirit declared awaited Paul and acted it out using Paul’s belt. The people, even the ones who did not hear from the Holy Spirit themselves, experienced for themselves, through God’s prophet, Agabus, Paul’s future persecution (vs. 10-11). After this powerful demonstration, the people begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

In these eleven verses, people from many levels of Christian development received word from the Holy Spirit of Paul’s immediate future in Jerusalem. This is the main point I learned. The disciples or evangelists were not the only ones who listened to God. The apostles and prophets were not the only ones who heeded what God said. The regular people, ordinary disciples of Christ, listened to and heeded God in their own time with Him either during their day or through the prophets and evangelists. God speaks to anyone who cares to listen to Him. He seeks a relationship with everyone. Paul is the main person in this passage. What I found upon reading this passage this time is that God made each of these different Jesus followers aware of Paul’s immediate future of return to Jerusalem, imprisonment, and persecution. God wants a close relationship with everyone for two reasons: 1) He wants to be acquainted with people and for people to be acquainted with Him in such a way that they receive eternal salvation, and 2) He wants people to understand how to pray for His obedient servants as they walk in obedience to His call. Each person has an active call to be in a relationship with God and be in ministry/walk with Him by doing and by praying.

The second lesson of this passage comes in the final two verses. Verses 13-14 tell us:

Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent remarking, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’ [NASB]

Even though the Holy Spirit revealed to the people what awaited Paul, Paul’s conviction to continue his journey came from the Holy Spirit’s compelling him to go to Jerusalem, which we saw in Acts 19:21. The weeping and pleading by these people, who loved Paul and whom Paul loved, did not dissuade him from being an obedient servant for the purpose of God. Each of these people understood from the Holy Spirit, in one way or another, the truth about the future of Paul in Jerusalem. Each asked him not to go there. Paul probably sweated tears as he remembered Jesus Christ also dealt with this in the garden before His arrest. They both could have turned away from God’s path. If Jesus had turned away, humankind would not have salvation from their sins. If Paul turned away from God’s path, the Roman guards, commanders, governors, and emperor would not have known about God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. The people who looked up to both Jesus and Paul would have lost a role model in the faith. Each of these two men had a purpose to go to Jerusalem for the good of God’s kingdom. Each of them chose to follow God’s calling on their life.

            God’s calling on each of our lives may not be so dramatic. That does not make it less important. Whatever that call is, it becomes our Jerusalem, the point where we decide to be obedient or turn away. God has a purpose for each thing He calls His disciples to do. If God calls one person to be a corporate manager and another as a sewer digger, both have the opportunity to influence people by the testimony of their actions and words. They can influence for good or evil. Each of us must choose if we will follow God’s call for our lives. If we choose not, then it will influence others negatively. If we choose to follow God’s calling and commands, it influences people around for us for the good. Whether we heed God to go or to pray, when we hear from Him, that is the time to take a stand for Him. Pray for His workers as He brings them to mind. You do not know what they are soon to encounter. Work at the task God has placed before you. You do not realize how your work will influence the next person or the person watching. This is your Jerusalem. This is where you decide to follow God’s will or not. Jerusalem can be life-threatening like it was for Jesus and Paul or it can be a place of renewal, growth and guidance.

            God calls each one of us to follow Him. This means having a relationship with Him. It also means praying, studying His Word, and enacting in life what God calls us to do. You have to make the decision. God will not force it. He gave you free will as a gift when He created humankind.

Will you choose to be acquainted intimately with God

and walk according to His purpose even if it means going to your Jerusalem, a place of suffering and persecution?

Or, will you listen to people begging you not to follow God’s call

and walk without Him.

God calls everyone to come to Him and receive His love, redemption, salvation, and

life with Him forever.

You must choose.