Acts 17:5-9 - These men who turned the world upside down

17:5

This parallels the way the religious leaders treated Jesus in getting people to testify against Him. We see the deceptiveness of sin. The Jews claimed to be holding to the Law yet were willing to use “bad characters” to cause a riot. We all need to be aware how deceptive sin can be. Jason, although a Greek name, had been adopted by many Jews, and he was probably a believing Jew (Rom 16:21).

17:6-9

Having failed to find Paul and Silas at Jason’s house, the mob dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials. We should note how easy it is for evil men to get others to do their dirty work. This happened in communist Russia and Nazi Germany. Thessalonica was a very pro-Roman place, and the mantra of the Roman Empire was Caesar is Lord. We do not appreciate how revolutionary it was to say Jesus is Lord. It was a direct challenge to Roman authority, or a denial of Roman authority. We need to get rid of this nice picture we have of Jesus and the gospel. The gospel is a challenge to the world. This is why the city officials were so concerned.

Complete notes on Obadiah are now available

Complete notes on Obadiah are now available on Dundee Believer.

Acts 17:1-4 - This Jesus is the Christ

17:1,2

In all Paul and his companions travelled about 100 miles. As in many places in the Roman Empire, there was a Jewish synagogue in Thessalonica, a city of some 200 000 people. It was the capital of Macedonia. Adopting his usual practice, Paul went to the Synagogue first, and on three successive Sabbaths he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures”. Preaching and teaching of the gospel involves many aspects. One of these is “reasoning”. We should note that Paul reasonsed from the Scriptures. There is a tendency today to reason from anything but the Scriptures. Now we should note that the Jews would respect the Scriptures, at least outwardly. Today, most do not. So there is an argument for using a different starting point. On the other hand, it is the word of God that is the sword of the spirit.

17:3,4

Paul used the Scriptures to prove and explain that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. Here there is no questioning of the resurrection itself, though in 1 Cor 15 Paul will defend the resurrection as an existential fact. The key issue with the Jews was whether or not Jesus was the Biblical messiah. Paul proved and explained. So he sought both to establish the facts, and to give understanding of the facts. Some of the Jews were persuaded, along with a large number of God fearing Greeks, and a few prominent women. The gospel is for all people, both rich and poor.

Haggai 2:8 - The silver is mine, the gold is mine

2:8

Economic poverty was a major problem in Jerusalem at the time, recovering from their war ravished state. A problem uppermost in their minds would be how can we get the resources to build this temple? At the same time they would see other nations, the Medes in particular, who seemed to have all the wealth. God reminds them that wealth actually belongs to Him. Moreover, we read in Ezra 6 about how Darius the king made an order that gold and silver taken from the temple was to be returned, and regions were ordered to pay taxes to fund the rebuilding of the temple. The words of this verse were not just idle words. Now, I detest what is called the prosperity gospel, but we must not throw out the baby with the bath water. All wealth belongs to the Lord, and prosperity comes from Him. We have here and in Ezra 6 a concrete example of this working out in practice. We need to know that the Lord is God and there is no other. We also see here God’s temple being funded by the state! There is nothing intrinsically wrong with churches receiving funding from governments, as long as the church does not have to sacrifice Godly principles. We also see that there are times when governments make decisions that are favourable to the kingdom, there are times when they persecute God’s people. We read of both in the Bible. In either situation we need to be secure in the knowledge that Christ is Lord, all the time, and we must remain faithful to Him.

Acts 16:34-40 - Roman Citizens

16:34

The jailer then gave them food to eat. The jailer has taken an enormous risk in taking Paul and Silas out of the jail, and nothing is said of the other prisoners. Hospitality was considered very important. The man was full of joy because he and his household had believed in the Lord. as a side issue, note that the food is most unlikely to have been kosher, yet Paul and Silas apparently ate it without question.

16:35

The magistrates decided to let the prisoners go. They had been jailed, but no formal sentence had been passed. They had just been thrown into prison in order to control order. Or they may have recognised the earthquake as divine intervention, or because of the damage it had caused to the prison it may just have been a pragmatic decision on their part.

16:36,37

So the keeper of the prison informed Paul of the decision. Note that Paul and Silas had stayed at the prison. One might have thought that Paul would heave a sigh of relief and got out while the going was good, but no! Instead, Paul made use of his Roman citizenship, this gave him various rights throughout the empire, and that included the right not to be beaten. So Paul demanded that the city leaders come and inform him personally, rather than trying to sweep things quietly under the carpet.

16:38-40

Roman citizenship was a valuable thing, and mistreating a Roman citizen was a serious misdemeanour. Apparently the magistrates had not realised that Paul was a Roman citizen.So they went along grovelling and asked them to leave. Paul complied with this, but only after visiting the believers, presumably to tell them what had happened, and to encourage them. Then they left.

Haggai 2:6,7 - I will shake all nations

2:6,7

Now these verses present us with a problem, namely of timing. For as far as Haggai’s temple is concerned these things never happened. So let’s look at things closely. “Once more” indicates that we should refer back to the incident referenced in v5. In Ex 19:19 it says that God answered Moses out of the thunder. Now He is going to speak to the whole earth. 2:6 is also referenced in Heb 12:26,27. Some versions have “desire of all nations” and others “treasures of all nations” (or something similar to either of these). Either translation is possible, so maybe we should take both. In Solomon’s time other nations did bring treasures to the building of the temple, so nations may again bring treasures to the temple. However, if we take the “desire of all nations” line, then Ecclesiastes speaks of God putting eternity into the hearts of men (Ecc 3:11). All men are looking for something, and this would speak of men recognising that what they are looking for is actually found in Christ. Christ is the desire of all men, if only they would recognise it, every true longing is found in Him. So we now come to timing. This certainly looks eschatological. We can also view it from an amillennial perspective and a post/pre millennial viewpoint. From the amillennial view the gospel has been going out to all nations, and people from all nations have been finding salvation. This applies to all cultures and races. This has and is happening, but this does not preclude a futurist application as well.

I also think we have to take the second temple as being a prototype, a trailer, for the real “second temple”. For the temple that was built was destroyed in AD 70. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is being spoken of. And, of course, Jesus referred to Himself as a temple (John 2:19).  This raises the question (at lease to me!) as to why did God tell them to build this temple, knowing it would not last (though it did manage a few hundred years)? I don’t know anything like the full answer, but a couple of thoughts. First, it provided a prototype for teaching lessons that we find in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai. Secondly, it provided the stage for the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. But this is where the Blog title of “Bible Musings” is appropriate, for there is much more to it than that.

Acts 16:31-33 - Believe in the Lord and you will be saved

16:31,32

Believe in the Lord Jesus. The salvation is for everyone who will believe, and it is for whole households as well. Now some take this sort of verse (16:31) (eg Acts 2:38) as justification for infant baptism. The case for this would seem to be a little tenuous at best. The next verse has Paul and Silas speaking the word of God to the jailer’s household. So one could just as easily take it as implying they needed to understand what they were doing. Ie supporting believer’s baptism if you want to put it in that context.

We do better to focus on what is definitely taught here. We need to believe in the Lord Jesus in order to be saved, and we are to be instructed in the word of the Lord.

16:33

The jailer took them out of the prison and washed their wounds. These were wounds from previous beatings (16:23). Then the jailer and all his family were baptised. Of course, this is used as justification for infant baptism, but we do not know if young infants were involved or not. What can be said from this and other incidents in Acts is that baptism can take place immediately on conversion. Nowadays in churches that practice believer’s baptism (and “confirmation” could be considered equivalent for this context) the normal way of doing things is for people to go through some sort of baptism class first. Now the jailer and his family had had some instruction.

Haggai 2:4,5 - Be strong!

2:4

Our natural reaction in the face of such circumstances is to become discouraged, to lose heart. God gives them a command to respond in a different way, then gives them the grounds for this command, and then gives them the promise. First of all, they are to be strong and to work, and this instruction is given to all. It is perfectly normal to have times of discouragement, but when these times arise we do not have to give in to the discouragement. Then see that value of the two pronged command, “be strong and work”. In the midst of discouragement it is difficult to change our feelings, to be strong, but it is possible to do something, to work. So regardless of our feelings, we should do the things that we know God wants us to do. The feelings will follow on afterwards.

The verse ends with the commonly used term “Lord of hosts”. Literally, this means “Lord if armies”, but it probably has a more general meaning “Lord over all powers”. These people were living in a decimated land, they had spent years under the power of other nations, at the mercy of other nations, and this had followed years of military defeats. The Lord is telling them that He is more powerful than all the forces that seem to have dominated their lives for years. The same applies to us. Whatever circumstances or forces we may think have dominated our lives, it is the Lord alone who has all power and authority.

2:5

“According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt”. We are going back hundreds of years now, but God’s covenant remains. Circumstances and time do not change God’s covenant, His settled purpose. “My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!” The people needed to rely on God’s promises and to know that He was with them.

Acts 16:26-30 - What must I do to be saved?

16:26

Then there was a violent earthquake. This was possible just a very localised event that seemed like an earthquake, or a more general earthquake that had the effect of shaking the foundations of the prison. All the prison doors flew open and everyone’s chains fell off. This shows that even though the earthquake itself may possible have been explicable as a natural event, the loosing of the chains is much harder to explain, unless one takes the view that it was direct intervention by God.

16:27,28

While this was good news for the prisoners, it was not so for the guard. He would be in enormous trouble for letting the prisoners get free. The sentence for such a failing could quite easily be death (see Acts 12:19). Paul reassures him that they were all still there. It is not clear why the other prisoners had not just scarpered. Maybe they were in shock as well.

16:29,30

The jailer then called for lights, presumably some parts had collapsed. He fell before Paul and Silas, but unlike in an earlier incident, he was not worshipping them as such, but could see that they had access to some superior knowledge or power. “What must I do to be saved?” The fact that Paul and Silas had been worshipping God, and the reason for their imprisonment in the first place meant the jailer would know why they were there. The immediate events had demonstrated beyond doubt that there was something in it!

Haggai 2:1-3 - Who remembers the former glory?

2:1

In the first chapter we read about how God rebuked the people, and related how He had been frustrating their efforts because they had focused on themselves and not God. Then the people repented, the rebuilding work began and God declared that He was with them. We are now about four weeks since this last prophecy and in this chapter two real problems are dealt with, and dealt with by God. Ie the answer came from God, not from the people. The first problem is that the task seems hopeless, the second is the unworthiness, the defilement, of the people. When we start to walk in God’s light one of the things that happens is that we become more aware of our sinfulness. This chapter addresses both of these issues.

2:2,3

The message is given its common introduction, being addressed to Zerubbabel, Joshua and the people. Or more precisely, the remnant of the people. In actual fact a relatively small proportion of the exiled people had returned from Babylon. Remember the conditions under which the first temple had been built. It was under Solomon, just after David. The nation was sort of living God’s way, the nation was on the up. Solomon was incredibly wealthy, was respected by all the surrounding nations, and received much help (including slave labour) from other nations. Now Israel was a war torn land, just beginning to recover from its ravished state. All this had happened because of her persistent sin against God. She was not respected by other nations, and would receive little help, she was poor. “Who is left among you ..” It was some 67 years since the destruction of the temple. There may have been one or two among them who had childhood memories of the first temple, and what they had now would indeed seem as nothing at all. Others would have heard stories of what they used to have. In Dundee there was the McCheyne revival of 1839, but today there is nothing like that. It is easy to be discouraged by memories or stories of past victories. This is a very human problem, and this part of the prophecy deals with that issue.

Acts 16:22-25 - Praying and singing hymns

16:22

“The crowd joined in the attack ...” We sometimes labour under the misapprehension that people will naturally see the sense and goodness of the gospel. This is not so. We will get a very fickle response. Sometimes they will be supportive, this will happen when God moves the heart of a people, or changes the heart of a people, opening their eyes to the truth. But at other times they will be easily swayed by the arguments of evil men, as happened here. The authorities also joined in, ordering that Paul and Silas be beaten.

16:23,24

They were severely flogged, and then thrown into prison. The jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. In light of what was going to happen, Luke is at pains to stress that his account is not just a fanciful way of saying the guard was a bit lax and so they escaped. No, they were properly jailed and their release was a miracle from God. so they were put in the inner cell, and their feet were put in stocks. So Paul and Silas were securely imprisoned with no natural means of escape.

16:25

We now get to the part where the miracle takes place. The conditions would be far from pleasant, yet Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, they were putting Jesus’ words in Matt 5:11,12 into practice. The other prisoners were listening to them. We are not told what their reaction was!

Haggai 1:12-15 - I am with you

1:12

So the people obeyed the word of the Lord. Notice two things here. First, there is obedience from all sectors of society. Zerubbabel is the governor, Joshua is the high priest. So the civil government and religious leaders are involved, and then all the people are involved.  Next, they obeyed the word of the Lord, and this word was given through Haggai the prophet. Haggai was not spouting forth his own ideas, nor his own assessment of the situation. He was speaking the word of God. “And all the people feared the Lord.” Oh that the people of this land would fear the Lord, oh that our political leaders would fear the Lord, oh that our religious leaders would fear the Lord, oh that we would fear the Lord. What a transformation would take place in our land.

1:13

“I am with you.” This is a very short prophecy, probably the shortest prophecy in the Bible, yet one of utmost importance. First, consider what had gone before. The people have been struggling, they have been struggling because they disobeyed the Lord and because the Lord was frustrating their plans. They were sharply rebuked by the Lord. Has He forgotten them, has He rejected them? Fears that this was so would be a natural reaction. But God had not rejected them, He was disciplining them and there is a world of difference (see Hebrews 12). See Isaiah 41:9,10. We need to understand the discipline of the Lord in our lives, we need to understand His purposes for our lives.

1:14,15

The civic leader, religious leader and all the people started to work on the temple, and they did so because the “Lord stirred up the spirit” of them all. So the rebuilding is seen very much as a work of the Lord, and He works on the spirit of men. This is part of the reason why we should pray for each other, and for our leaders, be they religious or civic. We are given a precise date, as is normal in this book. The people responded within three weeks of receiving Haggai’s word. So we see that the word of the Lord is given not to entertain people, but to illicit a response.

Acts 16:19-21 - They seized Paul and Silas

16:19

The woman’s masters were not happy about these developments! Their money making plans had now taken a downward turn. So they seized Paul and Silas seeking to have them tried by the authorities. When the gospel influences a people it will lead to some people losing money, for some ways of making money are not good. When this happens we can expect a reaction. Notice also how the response of the masters here is so similar to that of the religious leaders and Jesus. Jesus posed a threat to their position, so the religious leaders took Him to the authorities, ie to Pilate. Here the masters take Paul and Silas to the city authorities. Sometimes people get upset when people quote the Bible as saying the Jews killed Jesus, and there has been much anti-semitism throughout history. However, the Jews did kill Jesus, it was largely at the behest of the religious leaders, but they were no different from anyone else. We see here other people, presumably Gentiles, acting in exactly the same way. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

16:20,21

Since they point out that Paul and Silas were Jews it is almost certain that the masters were Gentiles. We should also note that though much of the early persecution came from the Jews, there are examples, as here, of Gentiles persecuting the church. And later it would come predominantly from Gentiles, mostly in the form of Rome. Indeed, Revelation is partly set in the context of Roman persecution of Christians. So Paul and Silas were accused of teaching things that went against the laws of the city. Today if we are going to be a Christian who is faithful to the word of God, we will teach things that are contrary to the ways of the world.

God, Satan or David?

Spoiler alert about Murder on the Orient Express!

One of the two major sins of David is the time when he counted the men in Israel. There are two accounts of this, one in 2 Samuel 24, and the other in 1 Chronicles 21. In 2 Samuel 24:1 it says:

Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He incited David against them saying “Go number Israel and Judah”.

In 1 Chronicles 21:1 it says:

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

As if that wasn’t enough in 2 Samuel 24: 10 David says:

But David’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done”.

And we find a similar report of what David said in 1 Chronicles 21:8.

So who dunnit? The answer is they all did it, a but like Murder on the Orient Express if you like! So what are we to make of it? First there is no contradiction. Now let’s see how this works out. Israel had sinned against God and so was going to suffer judgement. So God incited their leader to make a very bad decision. As an aside, when we have leaders who make bad decisions rather than our first reaction being to complain about our leaders, maybe our first reaction should be to look at ourselves as a people and ask what we need to repent of. Anyway, back to the main point. How did God incite David? Satan did what Satan does, tempts people to sin. He could not have done this unless God allowed him to. This is one reason why Jesus told us to pray “lead us not into temptation”. Then David gave in to the temptation, David was responsible for giving into the temptation. He could not blame Satan for this. Eve, of course, had tried this one without success in the Garden of Eden! (Adam was no better, he blamed the wife!). So there is no contradiction at all.

There are two main lessons we can take from all this. The first is that we are always responsible for our actions. Others may well have had a part in it, as Satan did here, but our first response must always be to consider our own responsibility. The second is that if we look for a nice simple explanation for things we will get it wrong. If we say “God did it, and that’s all there is to it” then we will get in all sorts of trouble. If we say “Satan did it, not God”, then we are denying God’s part. And if we was neither God nor Satan had any part in it, only David we are really up the creek.

Acts16:13-18 - The Lord opened her heart

6:13-15

Jewish custom was that it required at least ten men to form a synagogue,  otherwise they would meet, generally near water, for prayer. So Paul seems to have been aiming to meet a small group of Jews, perhaps this gave him a greater chance of explaining the gospel. We see another example of Luke’s emphasis on role of women. First, they speak to the women in general, then onem, Lydia, is given prominence. Paul and the Bible are often accused of being misogynist. This is inaccurate and unfair. Society in general was patriarchal, ie it was male dominated. Yet in the gospels, Acts and Paul’s letters we find women being given prominence, and treated equally. This is especially true here where we read of Lydia’s household being converted and baptised, and God opening her heart. She was the “lead person” in this incident.

16:16-18

One day they met a woman who was demon-possessed. She was able to tell the future and made money for her owners. We are not told of her predictions were accurate, though since she made money there may have been something in them. She taunted Paul and Silas, and in a similar manner to what some demons cried out during Jesus’ ministry. Paul eventually commanded the spirit to leave, and it did so. Note that this was not done out of compassion, but out of annoyance! We also see that demon possession is real.

On Cessationism - Spiritual gifts for today?

If you have read my notes on the Bible you will have realised that I am definitely not a cessationist, and have countered some of the cessationist arguments from time to time. We were talking briefly about the subject at a class I run at church called Deeper in the Word while we were looking at Hebrews and this included the Hebrews 2:1-4. So I thought it might be helpful to look briefly at three of the main arguments made by cessationists that I am aware of. Before going any further, let me make it clear that I am fully aware that there are many misuses of spiritual gifts. Sometimes these are just mistakes, sometimes people are childish or immature, and there are cases where it is downright abuse. This can be spiritual abuse, or seeking to con people out of money. I, and all charismatics that I know, are absolutely appalled by such misuses and teach against them.

Anyway, on to the three arguments. The first, and weakest, is based on 1 Cor 13:8-12 where Paul says prophecies and tongues will cease when the perfect comes, and the “perfect” is taken to be completion of the canon of Scripture. This seems to me to be a clear example of eisegesis if ever there was one, ie reading something into Scripture, rather than getting something from Scripture. The far better interpretation is that Paul is talking about the completion of all things when Christ returns. Moreover, James White, a reformed and cessationist theologian (and who I greatly respect, though don’t always agree with) admits that the completion of the canon of Scripture argument is a dubious argument.

A second argument is that the gifts were given to confirm or affirm the apostles. Now there is more to this argument. Most of the miracles recorded in Acts were carried out by the apostles, and signs and wonders were one mark of an apostle. However, miracles were not limited to the apostles. We should also look at Hebrews 2:1-4, where it says that God gave signs, wonders, miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit to attest to the gospel. While signs and wonders were involved in attesting to the apostles, it seems to me from Acts, and the passage in Hebrews, that the primary purpose was to attest to the gospel. Furthermore, I would say that our society in the West is at least as resistant to the gospel as the Graeco-Roman world of the first century was. Now we need to know that miracles most certainly do not guarantee that people will be saved (see the response to Jesus, the prime miracle-worker!), but I can see no Biblical reason why God will not do miracles today.

The final argument I will look at is the one that says miracles were dying out as we go through Acts. First, we should note that there is absolutely no statement in the Bible that signs, wonders and gifts would cease. So at best this is an argument from silence, and such arguments should always be treated with an element of caution. Then we should also note that Luke recording fewer miracles is not the same as miracles being less common, rather it means that Luke was focusing on other things. In particular, Luke’s emphasis in the latter part of Acts is on Paul’s journey back to Jerusalem and then on to Rome. However, and this is the “clincher” if you like, read Acts 28:7-10. While on Malta after the shipwreck we read that many people (in fact it says all the people who had diseases) came to Paul and were cured. So it seems that miracles were just as prevalent.

We have looked at three of the arguments against spiritual gifts being for today. This has been done briefly, and there is much more that could be said, and from both sides, and more eloquently than I have done. However, the most compelling argument for spiritual gifts is that the New Testament teaches about them, they were clearly a normal part of church life in the New Testament, and were intended to be so, and there is no indication whatsoever that this would cease to be the case before the return of Christ. Finally, if there was one New Testament church that you would think might be best to focus on other things, might be least suitable for using spiritual gifts, which would it be? Corinth! The church at Corinth had virtually every sin and failing imaginable, and in abundance. Yet, to which church did Paul give the most detailed teaching on Spiritual gifts? Corinth!

Spiritual gifts are meant to be part of church life, part of the life of a Christian. We should learn about them, and use them in a Biblical manner, and with Biblical balance, but they have not ceased.

Acts 16:8-12 - Come to Macedonia

16:8-10

Having been stopped by the Holy Spirit from going to Asia, God sends Paul a vision of a man calling him to Macedonia. Paul followed the leading of the vision and went to Macedonia. There is absolutely no Biblical nor practical reason why God should not use similar means today. We also need some common sense. This is not God’s normal way of guiding, but one that He may use from time to time. We are not to spend all our time waiting for a vision! Indeed, neither in the case of Peter nor Paul were they waiting for a vision, God sent them one. Then there is the question of how do we know if the vision was truly from God or not? Well there is no absolute test method but a couple of key tests are: (i) is it consistent with God’s plan as revealed in Scripture; (ii) what is the outcome.

16:11,12

Paul travelled through various places, eventually arriving at Philippi. This was to become the location for the next key event in Acts. Neapolois was the seaport that served Philippi. Philippi had originally been founded by Philip II of Macedon and a large Greek population was there. In 167 BC it became a Roman colony and part of Macedonia.

Haggai 1:10,11 - I have called for a drought

1:10,11

We now get a full description of the things that God did to frustrate the Israelites. God actively brought a drought upon the land. Now the modern mind recoils from such a notion, but this is what the Bible says. So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to put modern man’s wisdom above God’s wisdom? Are we going to deny the authority of the Bible, and say that this is just what the people thought God did, but they were wrong? And there are plenty who go under the name of Christian who would say yes we must adopt one of these lines of thought. Or are we going to accept this as the word of God and see what we can learn? This latter approach is the one we will take and is bound to be the most fruitful.

If having food and material wealth was the chief end of life , if a man’s life was indeed made up of the extent of his possessions, then if God was a God of love His primary aim would be to  give His people good harvests. But a man’s life is not made up of his possessions (Luke 12:15), we are called to a higher purpose, Israel had a higher purpose. We need to recognise what our true purpose in life is, and that is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And God’s love is such that He will act so that we find that higher purpose, that deeper infinitely more meaningful life.

Acts 16:4 -7 - The Spirit would not let them

16:4,5

The decisions reached in Jerusalem were relevant for all the churches, not just the one at Antioch. For most churches had a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, and later Judaisers would cause trouble in many places. So Paul wanted to make sure that they knew what had been decided, and were not listening to any “fake news”. So the people were strengthened in their faith and the number grew daily”. The issue had been contentious and difficult, but difficult issues dealt with in a godly manner can strengthen the church.

16:6,7

We see here the Holy Spirit guiding them, in this instance to stop them going into Asia. Also we are not told how He stopped them. It may be that events stopped them and they put this down to the Holy Spirit. We might wonder why the Spirit did not want them to go there, but we are not told, at least not directly. Later we are told that God specifically wanted them to go to Macedonia, so probably going to Asia would have prevented them from doing this. The Holy Spirit is in control. It also significant that verse 6 refers to the Holy Spirit, then verse 7 to the Spirit of Christ The Holy Spirit was the Spirit of God, so equating Him with the Spirit of Christ is equating Christ with God. Furthermore, we see that the Spirit is a person, not a force, for He is guiding the church. So in these two verse there is quite a bit of incidental trinitarian theology!

Haggai 1:7-9 - Consider your ways

1:7,8

In v 5 God called on the people to “consider your ways” in order to realise the failing of their present approach (ie seeking first their own needs, rather than the kingdom of God). Now He calls them to consider their ways  in terms of how to put things right, how to do the right thing. So God calls on them to go up to the hills and collect wood so that the temple, God’s house, could be built. This was so that the Lord could take pleasure in it and that He would be glorified. Now part of us may react, and the atheist almost certainly would react, against God’s desire to be glorified, thinking it was rather selfish and self-centered! But let’s look at this more closely. Let’s use my rough and ready definition of “glory”, which means moral excellence, significance and splendour. Who or what was the most important, the most significant, thing in life for the Israelites? They were acting as if getting their own needs was the most important thing, and they could best do this by their own efforts. The truth was that this was not working, and it is actually God who supplies all our needs. So only if they gave glory to God would life work out. And the same applies to you and me.

1:9

Their present ways were not working, but look at what it says “I blew it away”. It was not just that things were not working, God was actively frustrating their plans. We can think that if only politicians follow the correct policies and methods then things will work out, but if a nation is in abject rebellion against God it may be that God is actively frustrating the plans of a nation, and only when that nations repents will things start to work out. This is not to say that policies and methods don’t matter, they do, but our moral state matters as well. At present the West, including the UK, is a moral mess and the seeming inability of anything to work (eg Brexit?) is at least partly down to this. In Israel the people were focused purely on their own lives, not on God’s house.

Acts 16:1-3 - Timothy joins the band

16:1

We now learn how Paul met Timothy, the recipient of two of Paul’s pastoral letters. Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. One of the background features of Acts is the prominence of women in some of the narratives. We will see another example later in this chapter. If you read Paul’s letters you will also note this, Romans 16 being the prime example. The gospel gave importance to women. Timothy’s mother was a believer, we are not told if his father was, but it would seem that he was not.

16:2,3

Timothy was himself a believer and had a good reputation among the believers  at Lystra and Iconium. So Paul decided to take Timothy with him on his mission trips. Then we have a quite amazing incident in some ways, Paul has Timothy circumcised. And this after all the fuss over circumcision that we read about in the previous chapter. So why the apparent change? Why circumcision at all? Well as he was uncircumcised Timothy would not be regarded as a Jew, and they were going to be travelling through regions with significant numbers of Jews. So Paul did not want to put any unnecessary obstacle in the way of the Jews believing.This was a pragmatic decision, not a matter of salvation.

Haggai 1:3-6 - You have sown much, but harvested little

1:3,4

“Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” The previous verse says “Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet”. He has just talked about the people saying the time is not right to build the house of the Lord, a very human reaction. We are now going to get a stinging rebuke from the Lord. This response did not come from the cleverness of Haggai, but from the mind of God. When it says “paneled houses” this can mean, and probably does mean, “roofed-in”. Ie they had repaired the roof, rather than that they had decorated their houses with some elaborate decor. So God’s question is “is it right that we patch up our own lives while God’s house is left a ruin?”

1:5,6

Now why is it essential to get God’s house in order when our lives need putting together? Or to put it another way, why should I give to God when my own finances need attention or are in such a mess? Indeed, not only why should I give to God, how can I possibly give to God when my own needs are so great? We are going to get part of the answer here, and part later on. The part given here is “consider your ways”. They had devoted efforts to getting their lives in order but they weren’t working! So why must we give proper attention to God? Because our lives are completely dependent upon Him. He created us in the first place, He created the universe in which we live, and we are completely and utterly dependent upon Him for every moment of our being. So it is foolish not to give proper attention to Him!

Acts 15:32-40 - Strengthening the churches

15:32

Judas and Silas, the two representatives from Jerusalem, were prophets. This was an important ministry within the early church. So they exercised their gift. Note that we are not told what they said, only that they “exhorted and strengthened” the believers. In one sense this is quite annoying, in fact there is very little information in the New Testament about what prophets said. But in another sense this is good. For one thing it demonstrates that what they “prophesied” was not regarded as scriptural. Cessationists sometimes seem to want to insist that all prophecy must be on a par with scripture, there is no Biblical support for such a view. We need more prophets today.

15:33-35

Judas and Silas had been welcomed in Antioch, and after some time were then sent back to Jerusalem. In some translations, such as ESV, NIV, you will not find a verse 34, in others,, eg NKJV you will, and it says that Silas decided to remain there. This was possibly added to explain how Silas came to be part of Paul’s group (see v40). Paul and Barnabas remained there teaching and preaching. Teaching is primarily to the church, preaching may have been to the church, but possibly also to the world.

15:36-40

After some time Paul wanted to go back to the churches they had planted to see how they were doing. A sharp disagreement arose over this, namely over whether John Mark should join them. Earlier Mark had left them and Paul thought that this ruled him out, Barnabas disagreed. In the end Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways and Paul took Silas instead, and went through Syria and Cilicia. This shows that we are not getting any sugar-coated picture of the early church. Even with the great apostle, disagreements arose. The church is Spirit led, but this does not make us immune from human disputes.

Haggai 1:1,2 - These people say ...

1:1

As mentioned in the introduction, with Haggai we get very precise dating, so much so that we know the fifteen week period in which he gave his messages. The message was given to Haggai and he had to pass it onto Zerubbabel the governor and Judah the high priest. If God gives you a word then it is give for a purpose, it is given to be acted upon. Sometimes it might be given to you for application in your own life, sometimes it might be given for you to give to other particular people, as here, and at other times it might be for a group of people. For us  “receiving a word” will normally be God opening our eyes to something in Scripture, or impressing some aspect of scripture upon us, and certainly nothing from God will ever contradict Scripture, but will be perfectly consistent with it. Whatever the case, the word of God is given to be acted upon.

1:2

“These people say the time has not yet come ..” This attitude was perfectly understandable, even reasonable by human standards. The country was a mess. It had been desolated by the Babylonians, with many people dragged off into exiles. Some had now returned. The natural reaction would be to get their own lives sorted out, to start to rebuild the economy, rebuilding the temple would have to wait. We can do the same in our own lives, we can do the same as churches. But, as we will see, this will not work.

Let’s consider the centrality of the temple for a moment. We often say that “the church is not a building”, yet here we see the emphasis on the physical temple. Yet in the New Testament emphasis is not put on a physical temple. In Hebrews the imagery is largely taken from the tabernacle. The temple is a shadow of what was to come, it is kind of a demonstration project. In 1 Cor 6 we read that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are central to the fulfillment of God’s plans on earth, what He will do He will do through His people. So we need to focus on rebuilding the desolated temple within us. We might say that we have other things we need to sort out first, and we can say this as individuals and as churches, but we are wrong. We need to “seek first the kingdom of heaven”, and then “all these things will be added unto us”. Conversely, if we seek ourselves first then God will actively work to frustrate our plans, as we will see later.

Acts 15:22-31 - It seemed good to the apostles

15:22,23

The decision having been made, it was implemented in an orderly and sensible manner. They sent some men from the Jerusalem church to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. This would demonstrate beyond doubt that the decision did indeed have the full backing of the apostles in Jerusalem, and they need pay no attention to any future Judaisers. Silas, one of the men chosen, would become a future companion of Paul. They also sent a letter, so there was no room for doubt in the decision that had been made.

So we see that in this whole matter there is the work of the Holy Spirit, there is the wisdom of godly men, and there is proper administration. If we miss any one of these elements then we are heading for trouble.

15:24-29

The letter began by recognising the concerns of the Antioch church, and the disturbing effect that it had had. It then explained that men from Jerusalem had been sent along with Paul and Barnabas. These men had risked their lives for Christ. So they were men of genuine faith, not armchair believers. The letter then outlined the decision of the council.

15:30,31

So the outcome of the council was communicated to the believers in Antioch. This news brought great rejoicing. Why was this? Because the gospel had brought new life to the believers in Antioch, and this included Gentile believers. This new life had come as a result of faith in Jesus Christ, not as a result of any religious observance. So it meant that what they were doing was vindicated, and it meant that the work among the Gentiles could continue, and that there was unity between the Jerusalem church and the Antioch church.

Haggai - Introduction

The book of Haggai is very helpful as it gives very precise details of when Haggai gave his messages. Some of the prophets do this, others don’t. Given that God is in control of what goes into the Bible we can assume that if details are given then they are important in interpreting and understanding the prophecy. If they aren’t given it does not mean something is amiss, but that the details are not essential for understanding.

Haggai is known as “the prophet”. This is also the epithet he is given in Ezra 5:1 and Ezra 6:14. Haggai prophesied between 29 Aug 520 BC and 18 dec 520 BC, or rather the prophecies in this book occurred between those dates, a fifteen week period.

The situation is that some of the Israelites had returned from exile in Babylon. The economic situation was weak, for Israel was a defeated nation, and religion was in a mess. The temple had been destroyed. The key message is that they should get on with rebuilding the temple. Now there were many good reasons why other things should have priority, rebuilding their own lives for one! Today the church is in a mess in the West, we can find many excuses for just keeping things together. We can also find reasons why we must focus on our own lives and those of our families. In Haggai’s time God pointed out that their efforts to rebuild their own lives were proving futile, and it was God that was frustrating them! The same applies to us, we may find that our efforts to sort out our own lives and those of our families are just not working. In Israel’s case they needed to put their efforts into rebuilding the temple. In our case we need to put efforts into building the kingdom. When we do this we will encounter obstacles. The ones Israel encountered were twofold: the task seemed so great, even impossible; and their own sin. These are much the same ones as we encounter. God encourages them that in Him they will succeed.