SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/17/2017
9:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Persecution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 5:17-28
Message of the
verses: “17 But the high priest rose
up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they
were filled with jealousy. 18 They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a
public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of
the prison, and taking them out he said, 20 “Go, stand and speak to the people
in the temple the whole message of this Life." 21 Upon hearing this, they
entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high
priest and his associates came, they called the Council together, even all the
Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to
be brought. 22 But the officers who came did not find them in the prison; and
they returned and reported back, 23 saying, "We found the prison house
locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors; but when we had
opened up, we found no one inside." 24 Now when the captain of the temple
guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed
about them as to what would come of this. 25 But someone came and reported to
them, "The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and
teaching the people!" 26 Then the
captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without
violence (for they were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned). 27
When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest
questioned them, 28 saying, "We gave you strict orders not to continue
teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us."”
John MacArthur writes at the beginning of his commentary
on this section “A pure powerful church will inevitably provoke a hostile
reaction from the satanic world system.”
I have been thinking about that thought for some time now and the way
that I have been thinking about it is trying to make things simpler in this
complicated world we live in. First thing
that I realize is that God is in control, that God has a plan for the world
that He created, and that God has a plan for every believer who has been saved
by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Some people may think that God is not in control of everything that goes
on in this world, but my thoughts are that if God is God then He is in
control. Next we know that Satan hates
believers and will do anything that he is allowed to do to them to cause them
to stop walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, and persecution is one of the ways
that he does this, but as mentioned, only if God allows it. In the case of this section we read that the
Jews were actually jealous over what the Apostles were accomplishing and so
they wanted to stop them from preaching in the name of Jesus. This early church was making waves in the
world system and it was not going un-noticed by this world system, notably the
unbelieving Jews.
Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who
desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Peter as he reflects on the persecution that
he went through wrote “For what credit is there if, when you sin and are
harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right
and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God (1 Peter
2:20). Next we look at 1 Peter 3:17 “For
it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right
rather than for doing what is wrong.” And
next 1 Peter 4:14 “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
We read the following from the lips of our Lord in
Matthew 5:10-12 “10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when
people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of Me. 12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great;
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” John 15:17-20 has some similar things that
are also said by our Lord “17 “This I command you, that you love one another. 18 "If the world hates you, you know
that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you
out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 “Remember the word
that I said to you, ’A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will
keep yours also.” Let us also look at
what Paul wrote in Romans 8:17 “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with
Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
The early church in Jerusalem was striving to do the
things that the Lord desired for them to do and as mentioned the enemies of our
Lord did not like what was going on for after all there had been at the last
count in Acts over 5,000 people who have come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ,
and then the next count we give did not even have a number, but said that there
were many people being saved each day and because of this we read in verse 17
or our text for today: “But the high
priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the
Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.” I want to talk for a moment about this word
jealousy, “an envious and contentious rivalry, jealousy,” is the last description
of this word in my Greek/English dictionary from my Online Bible program. In studying the attributes of God I have
found that “Jealousy” is one of God’s attributes, but when we think about God
being jealous we have to remember that God is first of all holy and also
perfect and so if one of God’s attributes is jealousy that jealousy is
perfect. God does not want anyone to
worship anything but Him and He has that right because of who He is.
We are not really sure who the high priest was at this
time as it could have been Annas as seen in 4:6 or Caiaphas as he was in office
until A. D. 36. We remember both of
these men from the trials of our Lord. Whoever
it was he was a member of the Sadducees as all of the high priest of that time
period were, and the Sadducees did not believe in any angels, or any after
life, or certainly no resurrection from the dead. Not sure why they were even doing what they
were doing. However they were committed
to maintain the status quo and to put it in terms of today the Apostles were
upsetting the apple cart and these people did not like it. They were afraid of a new Jewish sect
beginning in Jerusalem, which would then take power away from them and they
were doing everything in their power to stop it so they put the Apostles in
jail, in the public jail where the common prisoners were held.
Let’s look at one more thought and that is that Satan’s
opposition backfired and this provided for God to display His power: “an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the
prison.” This is not the only time when
we will see this happen in the book of Acts.
Now this is indeed ironic since the Sadducees denied that angels even
existed. After they were released the
angel told them to “go your way, stand and speak to the people in the temple
the whole message of this Life” which refers to the gospel. “Holding fast the word of life, so that in
the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor
toil in vain (Philippians 2:16).” “1 What
was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life- 2 and the
life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us- 3 what we
have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have
fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His
Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete
(1 John 1:1-4).” MacArthur adds “The
good news we proclaim is that Jesus Christ came into the world to give abundant
and eternal life to the spiritually dead (cf. John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6; 1 John
5:20).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Thinking about
the mission of the church which is spreading the gospel as these Apostles were
doing in the early church along with those who had been already born-again that
has to be my mission too.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Trust that the Lord will be with the
situation that my wife and my daughter are involved in today, that He will work
it out for their good and for His glory.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “With a true heart, in full
assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).”
Today’s Bible
question: “When Andrew met Jesus, what
did he tell his brother Simon?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/17/2017 10:49 AM
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