PT-2 "Intro to Acts 17:1-15

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2018 9:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-2 Intro to Acts 17:1-15

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 17:1-15

            Message of the verses:  I think that I will not quote these verses in this Spiritual Diary as I did quote them from our last SD, and so if anyone wants to look at these verses they can go back to the SD from yesterday (05-01-2018).

            We left off looking at some troublesome men in our last SD, men that were certainly much a part of this world system and so I promised to look at some more of these men in our SD for today. 

            We will look at some verses from Jeremiah as we talk about the last king of Judah, Zedekial.  Judah was in a lot of trouble at this time as mighty Babylon was in the last stages of conquering it, but they had to withdraw from their fighting in Jerusalem to go to fight Pharaoh’s forces which is seen in Jeremiah 37:11.  This was an encouraging sign to the king, but Jeremiah the prophet knew that they would return and he kept on telling the king that this would happen:

“2  "Thus says the LORD, ’He who stays in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as booty and stay alive.’ 3 “Thus says the LORD, ’This city will certainly be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and he will capture it.’"”

We will see next that a group of infuriated court officials dragged Jeremiah before King Zedekiah, and they demanded:

4 Then the officials said to the king, "Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm."”

We know that Jeremiah was a true prophet of the Lord and what he was telling was what the Lord had shown him, and thus he was passing it on, and yet from their upside-down perspective, he was guilty of treason.

            We will not look at a couple of verses from the prophet Amos, but first some background.  Amos was actually from Judah, a shepherd, and God told him to go to the Northern Kingdom to give them a message of doom.  However, instead of heeding Amos’s divinely inspired warning,

“10 ¶  Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. 11 “For thus Amos says, ’Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’"”

We next read that Amaziah contemptuously “said to Amos, "Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying!”  What happened was that Amos was turning Amaziah’s world upside-down and he certainly did not like it.

            A point in all of this is that because the world is upside-down when the truth is given to these people who have understood the truth of God through the Scriptures then they want to rebel.  Jesus told the Jews in John 8 that the truth would set them free.  They responded in their ignorance that they were free because they were children of Abraham.  They misunderstood that being an actual physical child of Abraham did not set the free, but being saved through the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ truly set them free, as that sets us free from sin.

            This is the message that Paul and his missionary friends were giving out, however the lost looked upon Paul as being “a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world (Acts 24:5).”

            As my normal practice when I look at introductions to different portions of Scripture I like to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary as I follow the outline he gives out mostly at the end of his introduction to the chapter.

            “What characterizes a person who shakes up the world for the gospel.  From the narrative of Acts 17 emerge four key words that provide the answer:  courage, content, converts, and conflict.  The accounts of Paul’s ministry at Thessalonica and Berea are closely parallel and need to be considered together.”

            In our next SD we will begin to look at the first part of this outline which is “Courage.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Paul and his group of missionaries from this section of Scripture, and many others shows us that they had the right view of God:  “I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.  (The Knowledge of the Holy).’”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember that “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord,” and vengeance is not mine.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The sixth day” Genesis 1:26-31).

Today’s Bible question:  “While wicked men promise liberty, they themselves are what?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/2/2018 10:02 AM