Exodus 4:13-17

Now comes the final excuse, and one which many of us will have made. "Please send someone else".

So far God has been amazingly patient with Moses, but here things will change. The Lord's anger burned against Moses. Why is this? Why did this objection annoy God more than all the others? See what God was promising Moses. He was going to fulfil the desires of Moses' heart, namely see the Israelites set free, and Moses was going to be His chosen instrument in doing this. Yet all Moses could see were problems, and Moses was going to forego his destiny. When we are faced with situations that seem to overwhelm us, it is worth asking ourselves, and asking God, is God actually about to fulfil something amazing in our lives? God completely transforms the reality of life. In addition, God was about to free the Israelites, God may be about to use us to set someone else free, if only we will trust Him.

Then there is something equally amazing. God accommodates Moses, and suggests his brother speaks for him. Why did God do this? Our picture of God as someone who is totally unchanging and unresponsive is wrong. Even so, it is far better to go with God's first suggestion!

Exodus 4:10-12

Next Moses complains about his inability to speak well. This may refer to a speech impediment, or to not being quick witted and able to reply to Pharaoh. Acts 7:22 says Moses was "powerful in speech and action", though this may refer to what he did after he met with God.

Moses is looking ahead and imagining all the problems and reasons why things will go wrong. God looks ahead knowing He has everything planned out. The person of faith looks ahead knowing that whatever arises God can handle it.

The Lord's immediate reply is that it was He who gave man the ability to speak or not. Do you see the difference in perspective here? Moses views himself as at the centre of it all, it is all dependent upon his ability (or lack of). We often do the same, we see things as being completely dependent upon us. This is a product of the fall, when we took complete responsibility for ourselves. This is not what we were created for. We were created to live in fellowship with God, so what we can and cannot do is limited only by what God says we can and cannot do. When we come into relationship with Christ we need to get used to living in this new paradigm, and doing this is one of the biggest problems we have.

Exodus 4:1-9

Moses continues with his objections. This time he asks what will happen if they don't believe him and say "God did not appear to you". I am sure that this is something most of us have experienced. People will not listen to us, and don't believe that we actually know God.

The Lord answered this by giving Moses a demonstration of power. First he is to throw his rod on to the ground, and it turns into a snake. Then he was told to take it by the tail, a very dangerous thing to do with a snake! It then turns back to being a rod. Next he is to put his hand in his cloak and it becomes leprous. He puts it back, and it is healed.

Moses is to do these signs in the presence of the people, and God even gives him a third sign to do. See how God works here. First He demonstrates His power to Moses in private, then Moses is to demonstrate this in public. God works in our lives to demonstrate the reality and effectiveness of His love. Then we will see this work out in practice in the presence of other people. We should expect God to work through us in public.

Exodus 3:16-22

Moses was to assemble the leaders of Israel. Note that this would not be easy for him. As noted earlier, he was in exile. He had been brought up in Pharaoh's palace, so this would not help his reputation with the Israelites.

Moses is to tell them God has seen what has happened to them, and has declared that He will rescue them and take them to a land "flowing with milk and honey". Note that the promised land is occupied by various enemies. God was fully aware of this, and knew what He was going to do about it. When God makes a promise to us, it may seem that there are all sorts of obstacles in the way. Indeed, there may well be numerous obstacles, but God knows about the obstacles and knows what He is going to do about them.

God assures Moses that the elders will listen to him. Then they are to go to Pharaoh and make a request. God knew that Pharaoh would refuse, there would then be a power demonstration and eventually Pharaoh would relent. 

When they did leave, they would actually leave with loads of wealth given to them by the Egyptians.

Exodus 3:13-15

Moses then asks how he is supposed to explain to the Israelites who has sent him. Again we need to remember the situation. Only Moses had seen God in the burning bush. There was no established religion among the Israelites in the way that there was once the nation was set up, though there was an identity among the people.

God then introduces Himself as "I AM WHO I AM". Then He goes on to expand on this by saying that He is the God if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Israelites would probably have folk stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and about how they came to be in Egypt. So God makes a new revelation to them (I AM) and then shows how it fits in with what they already knew. In a sense this is what happened with Jesus and the gospel. Jesus was a new revelation, but then Jesus and the apostles showed how He was in fact the fulfilment of the Old Testament. 

In our own lives when we need delivering in some way God may well follow the same pattern, ie He may give us a new revelation of Himself, showing us something we didn't realise about before about Him.

"I AM". It can be interesting to compare this to what science says. It is increasingly common today for some atheists to claim that science negates religion. This is actually nonsense and quite the opposite case can be made equally well (in fact even evolution is not necessarily anti-God, only the way that Dawkins and the like portray it), but leaving that aside, cosmological views seem to come down at some point to saying "it just is". Big bang theories get down to fraction of a second after the big bang, but are then still at a loss as to why. When science tries to explain everything (rather than what is) it eventually comes down to having to say something just is. So even in its own terms, science is no better an explanation of the ultimate questions than the Bible. The Bible tells us that God is the reason, the difference is that this God has made Himself known to us in Christ.

Exodus 3:11,12

Moses now starts to raise all sorts of objections to God about why he cannot be the right person for God's mission. So when we do the same it is nothing new to God! 

The first objection that Moses raises is "who am I to do this?". We need to note that Moses had good reason for saying this. He had been in exile from Egypt (you know things are going badly when you are in exile from exile!) because the Israelites hated him and Pharaoh hated him. He had tried to help the Israelites and had failed. So all his experience taught him that he was not the man to do this. For all of us there are things in our life that have had a deep impact on us. We have ingrained views of ourselves, and areas where we feel complete failures.

God does not view us in the same way. Because of Christ anything is now possible. Now note that God is not ignorant of our past, our psyche, our failures and psychological flaws, it is just that He knows that in Christ they can be overcome.

God answer is "I will be with you". This is all we need. If God is with us who is against us? (Romans 8:31). The thing we should ask for in all situation is to be aware of God's presence with us (see Psalm 27).

God then gives Moses a sign. At first this might seem hopeful, but it is in fact useless (taking a human way of looking at things). God can sometimes be extremely unhelpful, and this is one of those occasions. He says that the sign will be "when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain". Now think about it, when this has happened Moses will already have inflicted the ten plagues on Pharaoh, seen the Red Sea part and several other miracles. At that point he won't need a sign!

So what is the lesson we can draw from this? It is that often you will only know that it really is God leading you when you start to take the steps. It is called living by faith. Our nature is to want to have everything all neatly set out beforehand, but God's nature is that we should take the steps, and He will assure us along the way. The way to know Jesus is to start to follow.

Exodus 3:7-10

"I have seen the misery .." The Lord has seen what has been happening to His people and has heard their cry. So often we think that God ignores our cry or is oblivious to our pleading, but this is not true. We can also forget that He is aware of other people's suffering as well. But God does see, and God is aware. We need to understand this, and for two very good reasons. First, He is never oblivious to our plight, Jesus said that every hair on our head is counter. God knows your circumstances right now, and He cares for you. Secondly, He will use us to help others, and some of His guidance and direction in our lives will be so that He can bring His salvation to others. In fact most of His direction and guidance will be motivated by this. 

So God says He has come down to rescue the people and to take them into a good and spacious land. This is God's purpose for our lives. 

Then in verse 10 we come to the most amazing thing, "So now go, I am sending you". When God comes down to rescue a people He usually works through people, including you and me. And just think again about Moses' situation. His life seems to have been a failure, he seems to be going nowhere, but God comes down and all his past failure means nothing to God, it is no problem to Him.  Understand the ways of the Lord.

Exodus 3:1-6

The rescue now begins. It is important to realise that on this day no one had any idea what God was going to do, or indeed that He was going to do anything. The plan started out in the wilderness, far away from Egypt. As far as Moses was concerned it was just another day, in fact he may well have given up all hope and was just plodding through life, but God intervened. There are, of course, parallels here to the coming of Christ, something which happened totally unexpectedly, and in an unexpected way.

God acted to get Moses' attention by appearing in a bush that had flames, but was not burning up (so "burning bush" is something of a misnomer). Moses went over to investigate, and then God spoke. God spoke by saying Moses name. God knows each one of us by name, and calls us by name.

Then God declares who He is. God often works this way. He lets us know that he knows and cares for us personally, then He reveals something of Himself to us.

Exodus 2

Moses came from a Levite household, as, of course, did his brother Aaron. This was the household that would produce the Old Testament priests. His mother took steps to keep Moses alive, firstly by hiding him, then by placing him in a papyrus basket and leaving among the reeds in the Nile.

Pharaoh's daughter  found the basket and the Hebrew baby. Moses' mother ended up looking after her own son, but Moses became the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So again we see God at work, despite all the plans of men. Moses was also brought up in the place that he would eventually free his people from.

Although Moses was brought up in the palace, his heart was still with the people. So when he saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite Moses killed him. The next day he saw two Hebrews fighting and tried to stop them. It then transpired that it was known that he had killed an Egyptian.

Pharaoh too learnt of Moses' actions and tried to kill him, so Moses fled. While fleeing, Moses saw some Midianite women being mistreated he helped them. This resulted in Moses marrying Zipporah. There actually a number of key women in the Bible who were not originally Jewish, Ruth being the main example. 

The Israelites continued under slavery, and God heard their cry for help.

At this point Moses' life seems to be going nowhere. He has tried to help his people but ended up in exile, but the heart is more important than anything else. Even when on the run he helped the Midianite women, and God was about to intervene in a way that he could never imagine.

Exodus 1

In many ways Exodus describes the birth of the nation of Israel, and the events described in this book defined the nation.

Exodus is the second book of Moses. Abraham was around in 2100 BC, Joseph and his family moved to Egypt around 1875 BC and the events in Exodus took place shortly after 1450 BC.

Joseph had enjoyed great favour in Egypt, and after him the Israelites multiplied greatly in number. However, when a new Pharaoh came on the scene things changed. He saw the Israelites as a threat, so sought to deal with the "problem" as he saw it.

The first step was to subject them to slave labour, however the Israelites continued to multiply. So the oppression intensified.  Next the king ordered that all new born male babies were to be killed. However, man is never has the control that he thinks he has, and the midwives refused to comply. So the cruelty was increased even further, and the baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile.

We see here God working through the events of history, with the Israelites, the midwives, and the Egyptian rulers all having a part.

Psalm 28

David knows that if the Lord does not answer him, then he has no hope. 

After starting with a call to the Lord for help and placing his hope in Him, he then gives his opinions of those who persecute him. They do evil, while pretending to be friendly with people they secretly plot malice against them. So David calls on God to bring justice against them for their evil.

What are we to make of this, as it doesn't seem very Christian to us. However, we need to have a broader picture of what the Bible teaches. We are to love mercy, to love our enemies, but the Bible (including the New Testament) is also clear that justice will come to those who persist in doing evil and resist all offers of reconciliation. As Paul says in Romans, "vengeance is mine, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19). We are to leave vengeance to the Lord, we are to offer mercy. But God will judge the wicked.

The Psalm then finishes with David rejoicing because the Lord has heard his cry. The key to breakthrough in situations is when our hearts know that God has heard, then we are full of faith and will overcome.

Psalm 27

In Christ I will rise above the difficulties I face right now.

In this Psalm we see David confidently declaring the protection and blessing he experiences from the Lord. Perhaps it useful to look at this together with Psalms 25 and 26. In Psalm 25 we see David declaring his trust in the Lord, but acutely aware of his own sin, in Psalm 26 David is confidently declaring his righteousness, now we see the result. To put this into Christian terms. We come to Christ as sinners needing mercy, when we trust in Him we receive this mercy. However, the result is not to leave as "dirty rotten sinners" but to transform us into the children of God. So now we can live as sons of God, with all our confidence in Him.

The Lord is our stronghold, light and salvation, we need fear nothing. For nothing that attacks us is stronger than the one who defends us. So when we are attacked, it is our enemies who will stumble, our hearts need not fear. Sometimes we misplace by faith by hoping that nothing bad will happen, but the faith the Bible offers is that whatever may happen, the Lord will enable us to overcome.

There is one thing we need above all else, and that is to be in the presence of the Lord. In all circumstances we should ask for this more than anything else. If we know God's presence, then we can overcome anything and everything. For then we will be exalted above our enemies, and we will rejoice. When we face difficulties we inevitably think we are going to be defeated. In Christ we need to change our attitude and instead have an expectation of victory.

In Christ I will rise above the difficulties I face right now.

Many, even those closest to us, may desert us, but the Lord is on our side. Note also that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. It is only when Christ returns that we will see the fulness of God's salvation, but we can receive down payments now.

We are to be strong and encouraged in the Lord.

Psalm 26

Vindicate me O Lord.

In the previous Psalm we see David humbling himself before God and relying purely on the Lord Himself. Yet here we see what seems to be a rather self-righteous attitude. We find Psalm 25 very easy to identify with, but this one much harder. The first verse, for instance, talks of having lived a blameless life, but none of us have. So what are we to make of it?

One way is to view it as Jesus saying this Psalm, and there is much merit in this. For all the talk of absolute and perfect devotion to God is entirely true of Jesus. Moreover, we depend upon Jesus' righteousness for our own righteousness.So we are counted as righteous because of our faith, and  this Psalm shows how God now views us. We have the same status in life as if we had lived a perfect life.

This view is very helpful, but I think we should also remember that it was David who originally wrote it. While none of us is perfect, there are times when we are unjustly treated. In those times we should look to God for justice, rather than seeking our own vengeance.

Psalm 25

Put your trust in the Lord.

This is the overwhelming message of this Psalm, and this is the way that David lived his life. He then makes two pleas to God, one that God will not let him be put to shame, and that God will not let his enemies triumph over him. When we trust in God we should makes requests to Him, for He is the one we are looking to for salvation. David then follows his requests with a declaration that no one who hopes in the Lord will be put to shame. We ask of God expecting to receive an answer. 

How will this salvation come? By the Lord showing us His ways and guiding us in His paths. He brings us salvation by showing us His ways. Jesus said "follow me", that is the way, indeed Jesus is the way. The way out, or through, any situation is to follow the ways of the Lord. This may require (in fact, almost certainly will require) us to change some of our actions, attitudes and thoughts. We need God to help us to change. Salvation is not a matter of being plucked out of a situation, but left unchanged.

David is aware of his own sinfulness and calls on God to treat him according to His mercy and love. That is what we do when we trust in Jesus. We rely on the forgiveness offered to us in the cross.

The Lord is a God who guides the humble and sinners. Being a sinner is not an obstacle to following God, for Jesus came to save sinners. Being proud is an obstacle. It does not matter what sort of life we lived before hand, what does matter is a willingness to learn from God. That is what repent and believe mean. 

What are the results of turning to the Lord? Prosperity. This does not just mean financial prosperity. In fact I don't like some of the teaching that seems to view the gospel as a get-rich-quick scheme, but following Christ will make a difference to your finances. But the prosperity affects every aspect of our life.

David then closes with a plea to the Lord to look mercifully on him, for he is going through anguish. Trusting in God does not mean that suddenly we find everything easy, it means that in the midst of our difficulties we know that the Lord is the One who will rescue us. We may experience all sorts of heartache, nut deep down we know that the Lord is faithful.

Psalm 24

This Psalm was possibly written for the time when the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem.

The starting point is that everything belongs to the Lord. He is a holy God, so who can possibly approach him and live. Remember that at David's first attempt to bring the ark back Uzzah had been killed by the Lord (2 Sam 6:6-8). So the fear of the Lord was a very real thing for David.

Those who can approach the Lord are those who have clear hands, a pure heart, and trust only in God. How does this apply to us? It is the blood of Jesus that makes us pure, we must also live good lives and trust in Him. There are two aspects to our interaction with God. One is on a "legal" level, the other is relational. The cross deals fully with our unworthiness, our uncleaness. It is also part of the relational side. The Father sent His Son to the cross because He wanted us to live in fellowship with Him. But there are two sides to a relationship, and for the relationship to work well we need to do our part. This includes the way we live and our trusting in the Lord.

The outcome of this is that we will receive vindication and blessing from the Lord.

The Psalm then closes with the sanctuary preparing for the entry of the Lord. When we return to God He comes to make His home with us (John 14:23). Note the majesty and glory of the  occasion that David is describing. When we turn to the Lord there is the same majesty and glory when He comes into our lives. It is the king of Glory who lives in us!

Psalm 23

This is without doubt the best known Psalm. For some reason it is often read at funerals, but this is a Psalm for the living! 

The Lord is the one who guides us in life. Sheep can be pretty stupid, as can we, not knowing what danger lurks, but the Lord is our Shepherd and provides all we need. He seeks out the green pastures for our lives. God knows what is best for us.

Stress and depression are major problems in the West, and there are many self-help guides and stuff like that, but the Lord is the one who helps us. The Lord is the One who knows how to look after my mental and emotional health. Now He does this in different ways to the world (John 14:27), but He will give us times of peace.

He guides us along the right paths to fulfil His plans. At times this will take us through dark valleys, but in these times we need have no fear, for the Lord will protect us.

He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. We may think at times that we are surrounded by forces that are looking forward to seeing our defeat, but in fact all they will see is the blessing of the Lord on our lives. We are anointed by the Lord and His goodness will follow us all the days of our lives. We should have an expectation of the Lord's goodness coming in to our lives.

Psalm 22:12-31

David was surrounded by many strong enemies, and his strength was sapped. This was true to such an extent that he was on the edge of death.

Verses 16-18 are obviously looking forward to what actually happened on the cross. Jesus' feet and hands were pierced, people did stare at him, and they did cast lots for his clothes.

Even in the midst of this David declares that the Lord is his strength, and calls upon God not to be far from him. Remember from the earlier verses that it feels to David that God has abandoned him, but David lives by faith not by feelings. We should not be afraid of our feelings, and should not pretend that we do not have them, but we should not live out of them.

David declares that he will declare the name of the Lord to the people, he is looking forward to the time when God does rescue him, and the glory that this will bring to the Lord. In the midst of trouble we too should look forward to the day of victory.

The Psalm finishes with David declaring the victory of the Lord. No matter what we are going through, we can declare the victory of the Lord.

Psalm 22:1-11

This is one of the most famous Psalms, starting with the words that Jesus spoke on the cross. Of course it was originally written by David, and shows that there were times when it seemed that God had forsaken him and was deaf to his cries.

So it starts with a cry if despair. Then David reminds himself of who God is, and what He has done in the past. How in the past people called upon Him and he rescued them.

Then he turns back to his own situation. We say that when in trouble we should praise God. This of course is true (we should always praise God), but sometimes the advice is given with the implicit message that if we praise God everything will then quickly turn out alright. Here we see David going through a battle, and we too may sometimes have to go through a battle.

His own situation is not good, he feels like a worm and people mock and insult him. They even mock him for calling on the Lord, and there is no evidence of God answering.

Again he turns to what he knows. The Lord has always been his foundation, and his security. Now he pleads with God to be close to him for there is no one else to help.

Acts 14:8-28

On to Lystra where they came across a man who had been lame since birth. The man was listening to Paul and Paul saw that the man had faith. So Paul called to the man and told him to get up on his feet. The man did this and began to walk.

There are a number of interesting observations:

1. How did Paul know that the man had faith?

2. Paul did not make a simple appeal, but picked out the man deliberately.

3. When we have faith previously impossible things suddenly become possible.

The crowd were amazed and proclaimed that Paul and Barnabas were gods, in particular Hermes and Zeus. People need to see, they also need to have things explained to them, otherwise they will not understand correctly. Barnabas and Paul were shocked at what was happening, and so explained to the people. 

They told them that they needed to turn from their worthless way of life. Note the challenge that Paul brought. He also taught the people to be grateful for the good things that God has given them.

As usual the Jews acted with jealousy and fear. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city. They thought he was dead, but Paul seems to have got up remarkably quickly, and back into the city.  Then they left for Derbe..

They preached the good news in Derbe and won many people over. After that they returned to Antioch, revisiting the places they had been to. They warned the disciples that being a Christian was not easy. They set up leaderships in each of the churches. They also preached in some new places.

Acts 14:1-7

Next stop was Iconium, and as usual they went to the synagogue. This provided their way into the cities they visited. Quite often they got thrown out, but by that time there was a crowd of people willing to listen to them. We need to find avenues that are open to us.

Many Jews and Gentiles believed, and as usual other Jews stirred up trouble against them. Peoples' minds were poisoned against them. However, this did not stop the word spreading. The Jews stirred up trouble, but the Lord stirred up miracles! So Paul and Barnabas spent a considerable amount of time there.

Both Jews and Gentiles made plots against Paul and Barnabas. The gospel turns worlds upside down, so those that are favoured by the established order will react against it. Paul & Barnabas learnt of the plots, and so went elsewhere spreading the gospel.

Acts 13:42-52

Paul and Barnabas were invited to speak again the next Sabbath. Note that there was a considered response. It is right to think about the things we hear and to weigh them up.

Some of them followed Paul and Barnabas, wanting to know more sooner. Paul urged them to continue in the grace of God. The Law was good, but it was given as part of God's grace, leading them ultimately to Christ. If they held on to the Law as the means of salvation, then they would leave God's grace. The message can be right, as the Law and the Prophets are, but we can still get it wrong if we attach the wrong importance to the message (as the Pharisees and Sadducees did). 

The next Sabbath large crowds gathered to hear Paul, but this aroused jealousy in the hearts of the Jews, so thay argued and abused Paul and Barnabas.

Paul answered them boldly, and declared that they would now take the message to the Gentiles. Paul understood the purposes of God. Note also that the large crowds gathered would have helped with this. The word spread, as did opposition. Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the region, and shook the dust off their feet. However, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 13:38-41

The outcome of the resurrection is that the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed. The problem above all problems that the cross solves is that of sin. Many religions and philosophies can make us aware of our sin, but only the good news can provide the answer. We are set free from sin. The Law could not provide that justification. 

The Jews thought the Law was the answer, but in fact it only highlighted the problem and pointed the way forward to the solution, it was not the solution itself. Paul quotes from Habbakuk 1:5 to illustrate that God is going to do something totally unexpected.

The freedom from sin and justification that is talked of here is the ending of a separation from God. Sin separated us from God, the cross has made us acceptable to God.

Acts 13:26-37

The hearers would have heard of what happened in Jerusalem. Paul  declares that they are the ones to whom the message of salvation has been sent, to both Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. I wonder if Paul realised just how far the gospel was going to spread at this point.

Paul then summarises the good news. The Jewish leaders crucified Jesus under false pretences. Jesus was fully dead, but God raised Him from the dead, and He appeared to many people. These people were now witnesses to the fact. Note the centrality of the resurrection, it was the single event that got the church going, and that motivated all that it did. And this was no "spiritual" resurrection (ie the spirit of Jesus living on), it was the resurrection of a dead person to a glorious new life.

The Psalms spoke of a saviour. Some things referred in part to David, but other could not because David died and decayed like everyone else. Jesus is different, for He is risen.

Acts 13:13-25

John Mark left them to return to Jerusalem. The rest of them went on to Pisidian Antioch and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. So we see them again using the opportunities afforded by the established religion. After the reading of the word Saul and his friends were invited to speak. It seems that the conflict that was already quite evident between the Jews and Christians in Jerusalem had not spread too far beyond Israel at this point. 

Saul is referred to as Paul from now on. We do not know for sure why, but it may be because Paul is more appropriate for the Gentile world he would be operating in. 

Paul takes his chance to speak. Evidently there were God fearers (Gentiles who believed in God, but were not full Jews) in the congregation. Paul, as did Stephen in Jerusalem, starts for the early days of Israel. It is a crucial part of the gospel that the message of Christ is not a departure from God's plan for Israel, but the fulfilment of it.

Paul starts with the captivity in Egypt and the exodus. Then he leads up to David. The reason is that, humanly speaking, Jesus was a descendant of David (Rom 1:3), the Jews also expected the Messiah to be a descendant of David. Paul's message will be that Jesus is this promised messiah. Paul also refers to John the Baptist, who they might have heard about.

Acts 13:1-12

The church in Antioch was clearly a vibrant place, and was guided by prophets and teachers, a few of whom are named. During a time of worship and fasting the Holy Spirit told them to set Saul and Barnabas apart and to send them out, and the church obeyed. The Holy Spirit was directing the growth and expansion of the church.

The first place they visited was Cyprus. Now we must remember that the places they went to would have had no Christian contact before their arrival, so in the first instance they went to the synagogues.

In the places they went to they encountered both interest and opposition. Elymas,a Jewish sorcerer, supplied the opposition, and the proconsul the interest. Saul turned to Elymas and spoke clearly about his state, and afflicted him with blindness.  The proconsul immediately believed. This is not the sort of evangelistic approach that we hear much of, but it was directed by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 12:12-25

Once he had realised what was happening, Peter went to Mary's house, where the people were gathered in prayer. A servant came to the door and recognised Peter, but when she reported this to the people she thought she was mad. So, it is not just us who can pray things not really expecting God to answer. Note also that God did answer, even though it seems that the people did not really expect a direct answer. While faith obviously helps, God is not limited by our faith.

Eventually they go to the door and realise that Peter really is there. I wonder what Peter is thinking while he was kept waiting at the door? Peter then explained what had happened.

The guards came very badly out of this, and through no fault of their own were executed by Herod.

Eventually Herod came even worse out of it all. He got so full of himself that he accepted the praise of the people that he was a god, and so God struck him down.

Acts 12:1-11

The focus switches back briefly to Jerusalem. The church was undergoing a period of extreme persecution. James the brother of John was put to death, and this met with the approval of the Jews. Hoping to build on this success, Herod then arrested Peter. This happened about the time of the Passover, ie a similar time of year to the events of the first Easter. Peter was put under armed guard.

Herod may have thought things were going his way, but God had other ideas. This does raise the question of why did God let James die, but not Peter? The honest answer is we do not know. It should warns us against infantile ideas of faith. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were about to thrown into the fiery furnace, they said they knew that God was able to save them, but did not know if He would rescue them from the furnace (Dan 3:16,17). We cannot put God in a box, even a box labelled faith!

The church was praying earnestly for Peter. In the night an angel appeared to Peter and released him. Note that this is the second time Peter has been freed from arrest by an angel. Even so, Peter was not sure whether he was just dreaming all this. Eventually he realised it was really happening.

Acts 11:19-30

The focus of Acts now shifts away from Jerusalem for the most part, moving first to Antioch. The persecution that followed the stoning of Stephen had resulted only in the good news being spread even further. This is an example of God working through all things for good. Some of them had gone to Antioch and there they spoke to Greeks. It is not clear whether this happened before or after the Cornelius conversion. So we see that God is moving in two ways here. On the one had there is the free growth of part of the church, reaching out to Greeks, presumably with no hang-ups about doing so. On the other there is the move on the "official" (established?) side of the church with Peter and Jerusalem. Both are clearly important, and we do well to remember this. The charismatic movement that started several decades ago had affected both independent and older denominational churches. Its overall effect is important because of the new churches that grew out of it, and its influence on denominational churches.

News of what was happening reached Jerusalem and Barnabas was sent to Antioch to investigate. Barnabas saw that the grace of God was operating. This is an important pointer, we should not look at things with legalistic eyes, seeking to find something wrong, but we should look for evidence of God's grace. The gospel is the operation of God's grace. Note also that the grace of God results in clearly visible changes.

Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch. At the end of the section we see also that the church at Antioch saw practical support for the Jerusalem church as important. Luke's message here is that Jerusalem and Antioch are all part of the same move of God.

Acts 11:1-18

The events with Peter and Cornelius would cause a great stir. The news spread, some would welcome it and be excited, but others would react against it. The same things happens today with any move of God. The text refers to the circumcised believers. This would seem to imply either that not all Jews were circumcised, or that there were already some Gentile believers. The latter seems unlikely as it does not fit with what has just happened. Whatever the case, the circumcised believers were annoyed that Peter had eaten with non-Jews.

 Before being too harsh with them, we need to remember what a monumental event had taken place, for Peters' actions went against all that they had known. So Peter explains all that happened. God's actions and way of working were chosen (i) to convince Peter of the right thing to do; and (ii) to give him a tale to tell so that he could convince others that it was actually God at work.

Having heard all that Peter said the objectors accepted what had happened and praised God. "Repentance that leads to life". This is a key element of the gospel, it involves a turning away from worthless things, and turning to the living God.

Acts 10:34-48

Peter now begins to speak. His first point is that he realises that God does not show favouritism. The Jews thought they were special and that they had God on their side in a way that He was not on the side of other peoples. Now they were (and are) special, but not in the way that they thought. When God chose Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) He said that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. When God blesses you it is in order that other people are then blessed through you, but we often want to hold on to the blessing for ourselves. Peter now realised that God's plan of salvation was not just for Israel, but for the whole world.

It then becomes apparent that news of what Jesus had done had spread around, and people like Cornelius would be aware of it. Peter quickly summarises events. Note the emphasis on Jesus doing good and freeing those who were under the power of the devil. 

Then Peter describes the events of the cross and resurrection, pointing out that there were ample witnesses to the resurrection, and that it was real, not some mere "spiritual" event. Now they had the job of preaching the gospel to the world.

While Peter was speaking the Holy Spirit came down on the hearers and they started speaking in tongues and praising God. God did things this way to demonstrate beyond all doubt that the Gentile believers were full members of His kingdom. This was done for their benefit, and for Peter's benefit. Then the people were baptised.

As an aside, the incident is a reminder that we should not get too hung up about the particular order of baptism in water and baptism in the Spirit.

Acts 10:24-33

So Peter went to Caesarea. Cornelius, meantime, had gathered all his family and friends. Obviously Cornelius was expecting something significant to happen.

When Peter arrived, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet, but Peter told him to get up for he was only a man. Peter then went inside and started to address the crowd.

He starts off by reminding them of the wall that existed between Jews and Gentiles (Eph 2:13), but that God had told him to treat them as equals. He came because God had told him to. Now he asks why they sent for him.

Cornelius explains the visit he had from an angel. As often is the case, the angel appeared as a man, though with a brilliant appearance. He then related what the angel had said. Now they wanted to hear what the Lord was going to say through Peter.

They were about to hear one of the most effective sermons ever. One of the reasons it was so effect was because of the expectation, humility and submission on the part of the hearers. If we want our preachers to be more effective one of the best things we can do is to be more expectant and prepare ourselves better.