Day 350
Pray (ACts) Read Acts 9v19-30 Message - Scott Woodburn In any new job there comes a period of adjustment. We all need to get to know our new colleagues and get to grips with office politics. Usually we all take a period of what we call “getting up to speed”. If Saul expected a quiet life as he settled into Christianity, he was completely mistaken. He had come to Damascus to destroy any evidence of the Christian church and yet immediately after his dramatic conversion he went to the local synagogues proclaiming that Jesus was the Son of God (v20). Not surprisingly there were those who were absolutely amazed (v21). They knew his original motives and now here he was preaching the same Christ he had once hated. Saul was not deterred by their amazement. Instead he grew in strength and confounded local Jews by proving that Jesus was indeed the Christ (v22). In later years Paul would speak of all that he had suffered for the sake of Jesus and he didn’t have to wait too long before his first taste of persecution. How would Saul’s opponents silence him? By death (v23). Again we see the vindictiveness of the enemy. He thinks nothing about taking the life of God’s people. Thankfully Saul would hear of the wicked plot (v24) and instead of leaving by the gates he was lowered down the wall in a basket (v25). Saul’s new life wasn’t going to be easy, nor was it going to be glamorous. As he returned to Jerusalem his old reputation proceeded him. The Christians were afraid of him because they doubted the authenticity of his claims (v26). Thankfully Barnabas testified to the Apostles that Saul had seen the Lord and that he had preached the Gospel boldly in Damascus (v27). Indeed he continued preaching boldly in Jerusalem (v28) and once more his opponents sought to kill him (v29). There are many phrases for Saul’s experience. We might say that he went through a “baptism of fire” or perhaps we would describe his troubles as “thrown in at the deep end”. I think Saul (by this stage Paul) put it best when he spoke of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ in Philippians 3. As far as he was concerned he counted everything as rubbish compared to Christ. Nothing compared to the value of Jesus to the man called Saul and later Paul. We should not be surprised when the Christian walk is difficult. The Lord made it clear that we should expect rejection just as He Himself was rejected. We may never have to flee a city in a basket, nor may we have to deal with the suspicious stares of our fellow Christians but whenever we are stung by criticism or wounded by words or fearful due to threats, may we remember the inestimable value of Christ. Peter was right “now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1v6-9) Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q5 Are there more Gods than one? There is but one only, the living and true God.
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Day 349
Pray (ACts) Read - Exodus 5:22-23 Message - Alan Burke Things rarely turn out as we expect them to, when we were in school and we were asked to imagine what our lives would be like, asked what we wanted to be when we grew up none of us could have predicted that this is the way they would be. Of course we may have got some things right, but what about that heartache over the loss of a loved one that remains all these years later, those disappointments, struggles of every day, the bitter reality of how time takes its tole on all of us. All these things can either lead us to turn to God or turn against God. They either cause us to cry out to him or complain about him. Turn to him or turn against him, cry out to him or complain about him. Things had gone from bad to worse for the Israelites, Pharaoh had succeeded, the reputation of Moses was mud, he was dejected, defeated, doubting, but like the foremen of the Israelites who had turned to pharaoh for their help, Moses cried out to the Lord God. Asking the Lord ‘Why have you brought trouble upon this people’. Actually what Moses says is much stronger, its “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? This people, don’t miss that. Moses was effectively saying to the Lord God that you brought this upon a people that you have nothing to do with, their lives were hard and they were better without your meddling. Then he blamed the Lord God that the evil he seen, the evil that had come upon the people, even though it was at the hands of pharaoh because his decree that they should gather their own straw, and Moses blamed himself asking why had he been sent (23). To him it was that God by his omission, that is lack of action in how he had not rescued the people was just as to blame if not fully to blame even though it had been Pharaoh by his commission, his actions and decree had caused their suffering to increase. It seems that God’s plan to bring salvation to his people had come to a grinding if not embarrassing halt, Pharaoh has won. What are you facing right now? What have you faced in the past? Has it turned you to God or turned you against God, that unbelieving spouse and children, how your health has been getting worse, how life has not gone the way that you expected in so many ways? What did you do, turn to God or turn against him? When the heartache came with the loss of a loved one, or the day it will come? When those disappointments come, when struggles seem to much for you to handle? Moses even though he was mouthing off at God he had turned to him, in the midst of his anguish, when things didn’t turn out as he expected them to he knew he could cry out to God. When troubles come we can turn to God with confidence by the presence of the Holy spirit within us, Jesus, he has promised to be with us, that’s in the joys and the sorrows, the times of celebration and the times of consternation (Matt 28:20). He hears our cries just like he did with Moses, although his answer may not be what we wanted or expected as Moses was about to find out. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 4 What is God?God is a Spirit, (John 4:24) infinite, (Job 11:7–9) eternal, (Ps. 90:2) and unchangeable, (James 1:17) in his being, (Exod. 3:14)wisdom, (Ps. 147:5) power, (Rev. 4:8) holiness, (Rev. 15:4) justice, goodness, and truth. (Exod. 34:6–7) Day 347
Pray (ACts) Read - Acts 9v10-19 Message - Scott Woodburn The Gospel can save the worst and most wretched of sinners but often the church struggles to believe such a truth. Saul had met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus and now the Lord commands a Christian by the name of Ananias to go and lay hands on Saul so that he might have his sight returned (v10-12). Ananias receives the Lord's command but is initially apprehensive. Isn't this the same Saul who has done much evil to the church? Isn't this the same Saul who has come to Damascus to have Christians arrested and sent back to Jerusalem? (v13-14) Ananias is right. The man now praying in the house of Judas in Straight Street (v11) is the same Saul who until recently wanted every last Christian stomped into the dirt. It's easy to roll our eyes at Ananias but I suspect each one of us would do the same. Imagine an announcement this week that a famous atheist has come to faith and will be preaching at church the following Sunday. Imagine the news that a terrorist has turned to Christ and will be sharing the Gospel at the next meeting of his political party. Imagine a report that the entire leadership of a false religion had believed the Gospel and were not urging their coreligionists to do the same. Would you believe any of these reports? Ananias wasn't sure but the Lord was clear. He had chosen Saul to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, to kings and to to his fellow Jews (v15) and he would suffer for the sake of the name of Christ (v16). Ananias had heard enough and went and did what the Lord had commanded (v17). Saul's eyes were opened, he was baptised and a good meal put strength into his body (v18-19). It would be exactly as the Lord decreed. Saul's unlikely conversion would one day end with him being executed for his faith in the city of Rome. Inspired by the Holy Spirit he would be used to write fourteen (thirteen if you don't agree with me on Hebrews) books of the Bible. He would preach sermons across the known world declaring the greatness of Christ and indeed at every turn he would suffer for the Gospel that he now proclaimed. Ananias and probably many like him couldn't quite believe that this was happening. They had no doubt discussed Saul's arrival and put plans in place to minimise his impact. Instead he was now to be welcomed as a brother and soon the Gospel would ring from Saul's own lips. An old hymn states that God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. Indeed he does. Saul's conversion and ministry show us that the Lord's ways and plans are not like ours but He will indeed accomplish all that He plans in the way that He plans it. Rest in the sovereign God for He says "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'" (Isaiah 46v8-10) Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q3 What do the Scriptures principally teach? The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Day 346
Pray (ACts) Read - Exodus 5:15-21 Message - Alan Burke Just incase you didn’t get it on Wednesday “If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them maybe you can hire… The A-Team” (thank you all of those who messaged me the answer). What happens if we have a problem, if no one else can help, where do we turn to? Well for the Israelites they had turned to God (2:23) and when that didn’t work out the way they wanted they turned to Pharaoh (15-18), and well that really didn't end well for them (19). As they leave knowing they are in trouble they give it to Moses and Aaron. Oh how fickle they were and we are, when things don’t work out we can so easily do the same, when God doesn’t meet our perceived needs we give up, stop praying, lie in on a Sunday. Here though, unlike the foremen, the dejected Moses who had just been given a mouthful turned to the one who could help. Moses the man of faith of the book of Hebrews, is here dejected and doubting. He can only see how he has made it worse of the people of God, he wonders why he was ever sent if this was it. But Moses had been told what to expect, there would be highs and there would be lows. I hope this is a comfort to us. In the midst of what ever we face, when we struggle, when we are discouraged, when we are dejected and doubt that this Moses is listed among the greats of the faith. He was a work in progress but God used him none the less. In the Gospel of Mark there is a father in Mark’s gospel, who cried out to Jesus “I believe, O Lord. Help my unbelief.” (Mk 9:24), as he confesses that he has some faith but also acknowledges his spiritual weakness and appeals to Jesus to create in him a heart that believes more firmly. Well Moses believed, be believed enough to cry out to God even though the whole thing had ended up in a right mess, he had faith but it was mingled with doubt. In the book of Jude we are told to have mercy on those who doubt (v22), but there is a difference between the doubt of Moses and the doubt that pharaoh had, pharaoh doubted that God existed his was disbelief, whereas Moses had went to God doubting not that God existed but what God was doing and would do. Maybe you have come before God and asked him why God, just as Moses did here, filled with disbelief, struggling at what you face, know that you are not alone, Moses cried out to God and many believers cried out to God in the midst of what they face, their doubts and inadequacies including me. Often when we face the harsh reality of living in a fallen broken world we in this life forget the promises of God. We wonder where God is in what we face but he has promised to never leave us or forsake those who are his, we might think this problem is to big for God to deal with but then remember we come before the God of the universe who tells us to cast our burdens on him for he cares for us. Satan will try to cause division between us and God, he will use the problems we face so that we doubt and struggle but remember in spite of it all, just as was the case for the people of God in Egypt that he is able and will do what he says he will do, Jesus our saviour reminds us that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30), he is not a cruel task master like pharaoh or sin, instead he offers us in life lived by faith is a much lighter yoke and a much easier burden to carry. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 2 What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, (2 Tim. 3:16, Eph. 2:20) is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him. (1 John 1:3–4) Day 345
Pray (ACts) Read - Acts 9v1-9 Message - Scott Woodburn The majority of the names of those who have been murdered for their faith in Christ are known only to the Lord and yet it is a tragic statistic that even in this so called "enlightened" age, Christians still lose their lives for the sake of Christ. While it has been a long time since we've seen such danger on these shores, try being a Christian today in North Korea or Saudi Arabia and you'll realise that danger comes quickly. Try converting from Islam in certain parts of the world today and you'll see the enemy rage. It has always been this way. Saul approved of Stephen's murder and in chapter nine is still breathing threats and murder against the church of Christ (v1). Indeed Saul's rage is such that he wants the persecution to spread to Damascus so that any Christians found there can be brought back to Jerusalem (v2). The hatred of Christ's church is Satanic in origin. He knows his time is short and so he seeks to do as much damage to the church as he possibly can (Revelation 12v12). Unfortunately sinful humanity plays an all too willing part in the persecution of the church. Is there any hope for those who seek to kill Christ's bride? Thankfully, yes. The change in Saul will be remarkable. He makes his way to Damascus but is stopped in his tracks by a light from heaven (v3). Saul falls to the ground and soon hears the voice of Christ (v5) who asks him "Why are you persecuting me?" (v4). Those with Saul are speechless, they hear the voice but don't see anyone (v7). Yet Saul, at Christ's command (v6), gets up of the ground and makes his way to Damascus. He has been blinded by his experience (v8) and sees nothing for three days (v9) but as we well know, Saul's life has been dramatically changed. How can someone who hates Christ suddenly follow His every word? How can someone who has approved the murder of Christ's people suddenly spend his life building the church? How can a man like Saul suddenly become Paul? The answer? When Christ irresistibly calls, sinners fall before Him. The Gospel is for all who will believe and thankfully the Lord doesn't take into account our past misdeeds. If your salvation depended upon your previous actions then I humbly suggest that neither you nor I would be saved. But the Gospel is for those who are sick, not healthy. It is for liars and murderers and adulterers and gossips and idolaters and racists and terrorists and wife beaters and "good" people and church goers and church refusers and church dividers and atheists. It is for every sinful sinner imaginable. The Gospel is all of grace and it is all of Jesus. Nations may try to keep the Gospel out and people may try to close their ears, but the Gospel wind blows where it wishes and all of those elected unto salvation will be called and will be saved. Saul makes no protest. He offers no argument against Christ. He doesn't rage in the face of Jesus. He has met the Lord whose call cannot be denied and Saul's life will never be the same again. Brothers and sisters, do not shrink in the face of your opponents and do not despair when your friends and enemies reject Christ. If you ever find yourself wondering "who then can be saved?", remember, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." (Luke 18v27) Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q1 What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Day 344
Pray (ACts) Read - Exodus 5:15-18 Message - Alan Burke “If you have a problem, if no one else can help and if you can find them maybe you can hire…” do you know? If you were a child of the 80’s or had children in the 80’s then you know what comes next (by the way you don’t need to message me to give me the answer). What happens if we have a problem, if no one else can help, where do we turn to? For the Israelites they had turned to the Lord God, they had cried out to him (2:23) because of their slavery, but now things were different. Things had gone from bad to worse for the people of God, the foremen turn to pharaoh, asking him why have you treated this way? In effect they went to Pharaoh asking: “why are you beating us, it is your people who have stopped suppling us with straw, why aren’t you beating them”. Pharaoh’s attempt at breaking the spirits of the people of God, at causing them to reject their leaders was working. But don’t miss what pharaoh has done here. The people in their oppression had cried out to God (2:23) because there was no where else to turn to in what they faced, God heard their groaning and he remembered, he was concerned about them. This time things were different, with the added brutality of the oppression they faced, as they believed the message Moses brought and they worshiped the Lord (4:29-30) they have given up on God and they turn but to pharaoh who unlike God does not listen. But notice where the foremen go. It wasn’t the Lord God who was concerned about them, who had seen their misery, who had sent Moses, instead they went to the source of their troubles, they went to pharaoh. Instead of where they should have gone first they should have gone to God. These foremen were representative of the people of God, they were showing their lack of faith, they were happy to listen to Moses and worship God when there were signs but when the rubber hit the road they relied on their own strength. Yet God was greater than their problems and God was with them. They should have cried out to God once more. But look back to chapter 4:30, where we read ‘and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses’. Everything, not just the nice bits but everything and that would have included how God would harden the heart of pharaoh and he would not let them go (3:19, 4:21). It seems that they had heard the good news but not the bad news, they heard what they wanted, they believed that God would set them free (4:31), but they did not listen to how God warned that it wouldn’t be plain sailing. God was using what they faced to increase their faith, to transform them. Neither can we expect that our walk with God will be plain sailing. Remember there is a cost to following Christ, a cost, and as we are reminded in Romans (5:3-5) we are to rejoice not only in future glory but in present trials and sufferings, not because trials are pleasant but because they produce a step-by-step transformation that makes believers more like Christ. Right now in the midst of what you are going though, even though that’s likely not what you want to hear God uses present trials and sufferings not because they are pleasant but because they produce transformation. And when things get hard, when the unexpected challenge or change comes, when we are struggling, when that curve ball arrives, the place we need to go to first unlike the foremen in Egypt is the LORD God himself through Christ Jesus. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 107 What doth the conclusion of the Lord’ s prayer teach us? The conclusion of the Lord’ s prayer, (which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen. (Matt. 6:13)) teacheth us, to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, (Dan. 9:4,7–9,16–19) and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him. (1 Chron. 29:10–13) And, in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen. (1 Cor. 14:16, Rev. 22:20–21) Day 343
Pray (ACts) Read - Acts 8v26-40 Message - Scott Woodburn The Gospel had gone north to Samaria and now it was time for it to go south (v26). Philip is commanded to head for Gaza by an angel of the Lord and ends up in a desert place. The Lord is no fool and Philip's arrival in the desert will end up with the waters of life flowing freely. In that place Philip comes across an Ethiopean eunuch who was in charge of Queen Candace's treasure (v27). A eunuch was a castrated man who would have been seen as more trustworthy because he couldn't have a family of his own. No in-laws meant he couldn't be influenced by them. No children meant he wouldn't be plotting and planning for his own family dynasty. Therefore a eunuch would often be put in charge of the King's wives or, as in this case, the Queen's money. This eunuch was someone who feared God. He was perhaps a Jew or someone who had come to hear about the God of the Jews, either way, he had gone to Jerusalem to worship (v27b) and was now sitting in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah (v28). Again the Gospel continues to move beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem. This man almost certainly had black skin and more than that he wouldn't be considered a true Jew. A eunuch was not allowed access to the temple and so the man Philip meets is yet another ethnic and religious outsider. He invites Philip to sit and discuss the Scriptures with him (v31) and soon the two men study Isaiah 53. The eunuch isn't sure who the passage is speaking about (v34) but Philip is certain that it is all about Jesus (v35). Christ is the lamb who was led to the slaughter (v32a). Christ is the one who is silent before His accusers (v32b). In Christ's humiliation He didn't receive justice in the midst of a wicked generation (v33a). His life was taken from the earth (v33b). The eunuch comes to trust in Christ, is baptised (v38) and goes on his way rejoicing (v39). As his chariot heads for home the Gospel he carries enters into the great continent of Africa. Philip on the other hand finds himself in Azotus (v40) and takes the Gospel up the coast to the city of Caesarea where European ears would hear of Jesus. In Galatians Paul would write "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3v28-29) These verses are often ripped from their context and offered in support of women elders or the current sexual revolution. They're not about either of those things, they are about our common salvation. A Jew, a Greek, a slave, a free man, a man, a woman, an Ethiopian, a Samaritan, a Protestant, a Catholic, a Muslim, a European, an African, an Asian...all of them must be saved, can be saved and are saved in exactly the same way - by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The Gospel makes us part of the one church and if we belong to Christ then we are spiritual descendants of Abraham. The promise of God to Abraham is true "In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice." (Genesis 22v18) Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q106 What do we pray for in the sixth petition? In the sixth petition, which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we pray, that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted. Day 342
Pray (ACts) Read - Exodus 5:10-14 Message - Alan Burke “I have my rights”, ever heard someone say that? Human rights, consumer rights, employment rights, all of us have rights. Depending on where you live in the world, those rights will differ, in some countries they are greater than others. For the Israelites they had none, no rights at all, they weren’t employees they were slaves, they were the property of pharaoh. There was no such thing as working part time, or having a forty hour week, this was full on, all day every day. They weren’t entitled to sick pay, maternity leave, retirement, instead all day every day, they served pharaoh. Their already arduous work, was about to get a lot worse. Here we are told how the slave drivers and the foremen of the people go out and tell them the decree of Pharaoh which equated to; ‘no straw, same amount of work’. They were being set up to fail! Their task remained the same but the straw that would have been brought to the Israelites on carts from vast distances, that enabled them to make bricks, they themselves would be tasked to gather. The people were now double jobbing, but it wasn’t like having a nine to five job and then in the evenings doing a few hours at the local garage. No, the task given to the Israelites wasn’t achievable, and as a result they were scattered, they were forced to gather stubble (12). Along with the difficulties in their task they were being lorded over by the slave drivers urging them to do what was required of them, ultimately knowing that they were set up for failure. But look here to what happens, as a result of their failure to meet their daily quota the foremen of the people were beaten (14). They were asked mockingly by their slave drivers why had they not achieved their quota as before. The plan of pharaoh was working, his ingenious plan for how ever awful it may have been it was working, it was causing division and strife among the people of God and subduing them further. Look back to verse 10, when the taskmasters and the foremen took the message out and what was it, ‘This is what Pharaoh says’. This is what pharaoh says! It may be easy to overlook how this decree itself is given to the people of God. But look back to chapter 4v22, when Moses is told by God to say to pharaoh “This is what the Lord Says” and then as Moses goes to Pharaoh in 5:1 saying; "This is what the Lord the God of Israel says”. And Pharaoh says back, this is what I say! What it reveals is that Pharaoh is pitting himself against God, he is in direct opposition to the plans and purposes of God. The Lord has spoken but pharaoh has rejected in and is in opposition to it. He is an enemy of God. We have already thought about how Satan was using Pharaoh for his purposes and here pharaoh was demanding the allegiance of God’s people despite the Lord’s claim on them. Satan was at work behind all this for he is the enemy of God’s people. In the New Testament we are told clearly how Satan is the enemy of God’s people. It is Satan who is the ultimate source of opposition against the people of God. He is at work today, here in this world and this land. It is the inescapable truth, Satan is the deceiver of the world (Rev 12:9), in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 tells us that, “[Satan comes] with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” Satan not only opposes the word of God as pharaoh did, but hates it, for it is God’s word alone is the way to make people wise unto salvation (2 Tim 3:15). And what do we see today; Pharaoh is long dead, but Satan uses the tide of public opinion, political correctness, corporations, academics, celebrities, bloggers, to deceive the world, to deceive those around you, and because we are born as slaves to sin, by our nature walk in the darkness, most people are oblivious to the work of Satan as he perverts and distorts the truth. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 105 What do we pray for in the fifth petition? In the fifth petition, (which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, (Matt. 6:12)) we pray, That God, for Christ’ s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; (Ps. 51:1–2,7,9, Dan. 9:17–19) which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others. (Luke 11:4, Matt. 18:35) |
Alan
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