June 2014 – The Wandering Shepherd

Following His Footsteps: “The First Thanksgiving” – Luke 2

Our nation, despite attempts by more modern historians to suggest otherwise, has a long history of offering thanks to the God of the Bible. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the “first Thanksgiving” celebrations in the colonies. For over two centuries, days of thanksgiving appear to have been celebrated by individual colonies and nascent states, but it wasn’t until 1863, amid the Civil War, the weighted President Abraham Lincoln looked at his broken country and proclaimed a national “Thanksgiving Day” to be held each November. It is an increasingly uncomfortable part of our history to the modern secularist – but it endures in the American landscape.

Yet, I would suggest the first thanksgiving in the Bible was not a day of national celebration, but a story of seven people, tied together in a story of celebration of thanks in the face of the news of the birth of the Savior. Yes, the first Christmas was actually the setting of the “first thanksgiving”. I am not suggesting no one had ever been thankful before. What I am suggesting is the record of the birth of Jesus was the first structured attempt in the Bible to reflect on a uniform response to God’s hand at work in the redemption of the world. Luke is the first author that placed into systematic writing a treatise of thanksgiving – as he reflected on how each person came to recognize what God was doing.

In our last study, we attempted to delve into the Joseph story found in Matthew’s Gospel. We noted that both Matthew and Luke recorded genealogies, but after that they seemed very different in their perspectives on the “Pre-ministry” they disclosed:

• Matthew focused on how God directed Joseph.
• Luke focused more on thankful responses to the wondrous message that God sent Messiah.

Here is the question we are posing to the text of Luke today: “What does the Scripture tell us was the proper response to the coming of Messiah?” The answer is at the heart of our lesson…

Principle: The proper response to the Good News of Messiah is thanksgiving and praise, filled with JOY!

Look at the players that are mentioned in Luke and note their responses to the revelation that Messiah was finally coming to the world:

1. Elizabeth (1:41-43; 45) – representing the longing women of the Jewish world!

Most every woman in the ancient world desired to bear children – because it was the single act that gave them universally understood significance. In some cases in Scripture, as with Leah of old, it was a way to keep a husband’s favor. The telling reality of how deeply this was felt is expressed in the woeful weeping of Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel, before her womb was opened. Elizabeth was clearly among the women who felt “shamed” by her barren state, and because jubilant at the news that God remembered her tears and cries. Six months into her pregnancy, Elizabeth was visited by her cousin, Mary – who was also pregnant. This is the familiar exchange:

Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed [are] you among women, and blessed [is] the fruit of your womb! 43 “And how has it [happened] to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? …45 “And blessed [is] she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”

Elizabeth exclaimed words of praise immediately when she saw Mary. They were LOUD praises, according to Luke! She called Mary “blessed”, she called the baby inside Mary “blessed” and then made the humblest of remarks. She asked: “Why would someone as important as the mother of my Lord come for a visit to my little home?” Yet her final words were the most significant and encouraging: 45 “And blessed [is] she who believed…” The pregnancy happened TO Mary, but the belief was her choice.

One of the aspects of the JOY of the news that Messiah has come is the continual celebration that reminds a culture and a nation that many have believed, and in believing they found life! We must admit that even that truth is quickly becoming a battle for the soul of our nation. I heard from another preacher friend some time ago:

A school teacher in the Midwest was told to remove her “Jesus is the reason for the season” pin when she entered the public school where she taught. She refused and was brought to the school principal, her immediate supervisor. According to her handbook she had the right to speak to the school board at their regularly scheduled meeting in the even that disciplinary measures were pending – and she opted to do so. Before the school board she asked: “What was offensive about the pin?” A school board member said: “This violates the establishment of religion clause of the Constitution – because we are a state-sponsored public institution in a pluralistic country.

• The teacher replied: “When, last Autumn, I wore a statement by a Christian minister – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.- concerning the inalienable rights of all men given by God for the whole month of black history, no one complained I was promoting Baptist causes.

• When in the winter I wore on a pin the words of Mother Teresa concerning the call to truly care for the hurting, no one complained that I was promoting Catholicism.

• When I wore for a whole month the words of Mahatma Gandhi “about peace within shown by peace without”, no one thought that I was promoting Hinduism.

Why is the simple fact that my pin states that we celebrate a winter holiday in our culture because of the birth of the baby Jesus now considered “an establishment of religion”? Since we teach our students each November that Pilgrims first arrived to allow the free practice of their Christian faith, why is Jesus singled out to be dismissed from public view? The board dismissed her from the meeting with an apology, and she kept the pin on for the duration of the Christmas season.

The modern push to change the memory of our nation belies the truth of why we are here and how we got to be what God made us to become. We have been blessed, and the practice of joyful celebration over the coming of Jesus is one of the opportunities we have to show our faith as tender, human and compassionate. It is a time we can pronounce the goodness of God – not leaving broken man in darkness. Our remembrances of Jesus’ birth offer a positive and reinforcing practice that helps us keep our faith in the public eye in America. It is for that reason the observation has come under attack; and it is for that reason we must joyfully and lovingly keep that engagement going!

2. Baby John (1:44) – representing all unconscious creation!

In that same visit scene, I skipped over the baby John’s little tumble in the womb of Elizabeth:

Luke 1:44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.

I see two important applications here, and I hope I am not drifting too far from the text:

• First, am I stretching the point to say that the coming of Jesus also affects the REST of creation? Consider the words of the Apostle Paul to the Roman believers:

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for [our] adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

The baby in the manger was the invasion of God from the spiritual world into the physical world. It was part of the battle plan to regain that which was stolen away… but it isn’t completed yet. God is taking back His world, but the full redemption of it hasn’t happened until He calls for an end to the fight. Those who walk in rebellion look strong in this hour – but they are not equal to His mighty hand. His great patience with men make them think He is unable to silence them – but they are wrong. Creation waits for the completion of redemption, and John’s little partially formed body could not hold back from joining the chorus of excitement on behalf of all creation!

• Second, not to press the point too far – but is it not ironically true in our day that those who truly believe in Jesus as their Savior represent some of the most ardent advocates for an unborn baby who is yet in the womb?

A literal approach to the Bible yields the sense that God is at work in a child before the time of their delivery and self-sustained life on the planet. The very breath of God is within them as living beings, and God has therefore given them intrinsic worth. I*t is for this reason that believers are so ardently PRO-LIFE. The fact that our GOD became a baby, and was delivered into our world by the means all of us came into it, makes our story unique and compelling – but it also reminds that even the birth process is a created and God-ordained action.

If all creation awaits final redemption, if the fallen and broken systems of this world are anticipating the time when they will be fully free of the effects of the “Fall of mankind”, should we not JOYFULLY and THANKFULLY celebrate the reality that Jesus was sent here to save mankind? Must we not press to keep that celebration at the fore of our calendar?

3. Zacharias (1:67-70) – representing the doubting but now convinced!

We noted in the previous two lessons some thoughts about Zacharias, but it is worth mentioning his role here, because Luke does:

Luke 1:67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68 “Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant—70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old…

The celebration of God’s goodness at the Advent Season is a renewal that God kept His promises delivered through the prophets. Skeptics attack, but many thinking skeptics are changed by what they see, both in the study of the Scriptures AND in the testimony of those who uphold the truth of the Word! Sir William Ramsey sought to prove Luke an inaccurate historian and ended his days in defense of the Gospel. The sheer weight of the archaeological evidence and geographical detail convinced him. Yet, for Lee Stroebel, it took watching other believers and the way they remembered Christmas.

Lee, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a self-professed atheist was sitting at his desk on Christmas Eve. A slow news day he found himself reminiscing about the Delgado family that he had featured while writing a series of articles about Chicago’s neediest people a few days earlier. The Delgado’s were comprised of a grandmother named Perfecta and her two granddaughters, Jenny age 13 and her sister Lydia 11 years old. He remembered how unprepared he was when he walked into their two room apartment on the west side of Chicago for the interview; bare halls and bare walls, no furniture, no rugs, nothing but a kitchen table and a handful of rice in the cupboards. He learned during the interview that Jenny and Lydia only had one short-sleeved dress apiece, plus a thin gray sweater that they shared. On cold days when the girls walked the half-mile to school, one of the girls would start with the sweater and then give it to the other at the halfway mark. It was all they had. Perfecta wanted more for her granddaughters and would gladly have worked, but her severe arthritis and age made work too difficult and painful. Since it was a slow news day Lee decided to check out a car and drive to Chicago’s west side to check up on the Delgado’s. When Jenny opened the door he couldn’t believe what he saw! His article on the Delgado’s had touched the hearts of many subscribers who responded with furniture and appliances, rugs, dozens of coats, scarves and gloves. The girls wouldn’t have to share a sweater any longer. There was cartons and cartons and boxes of food everywhere. They had so much food that the cupboards and closets couldn’t contain it. Someone had even donated a Christmas tree, and under it were mounds of presents and thousands of dollars in cash! Lee was astonished! But what astonished him the most was what he found Perfecta and her granddaughters doing. They were preparing to give most of it away. “Why would you give so much of this away?” Lee asked. Perfecta responded, “Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do.” Lee was dumbfounded. After regaining his composure he asked Perfecta another question. He wanted to know what she and the girls thought about the generosity that was shown to them. Again, Lee was not prepared for the answer. She said, “This is wonderful, this is very good.” “We did nothing to deserve this; it’s all a gift from God. But,” she added, “It is not his greatest gift, Lee. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. Jesus.” Lee was speechless as he drove back to the office. In the quiet of his car he noted a couple of observations. He had plenty and along with it plenty of anxiety, while the Delgado’s despite their poverty had peace. Lee had everything and yet wanted more, but the Delgado’s had nothing and yet knew generosity. Lee had everything and yet his life was as bare as the Delgado’s apartment prior to the article running. And yet the Delgado’s who had nothing were filled with hope, contentment and had a spiritual certainty. Even though Lee had so much more than the Delgado’s, he longed for what they had in their poverty. (From a sermon central illustrations quote by Bryan Fink “Christmas is for all the Lees/Leighs of the World” 12/25/2008)

4. Mary (2:10) – representing those to whom God has made a personal promise – and then delivered EXACTLY as He said!

Mary’s story is so well known, we need only touch it here:

Luke 2:1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. … 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn…17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

The memory was hard. Mary wasn’t accepted by the whole family, and gave birth in the room at the rear of the cave in the three-room cave style home. She listened to the shepherds, and she pondered what God was doing. She would suffer the pain of loss later, but for now she could lay quietly and drift along between thought and sleep… Did not God do exactly as He promised? Yet, in the days to come, the world would make that gift about their own gifts, and that day about everything BUT the Savior that came to rescue a lost mankind.

We shouldn’t be surprised… that is what the world does when God shows Himself through the lives of men and women – they shift the subject!

“Valentinus was the name of a young man who lived in Rome during reign of Claudius II (Gothicus) during the third century, when Christians were being persecuted. Though Valentinus did not claim to be a Christian himself, he was instrumental in helping early believers. For that he was imprisoned. From that dank holding cell he surrendered his heart to Jesus Christ and was later condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs, stoned and finally beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate (near modern Piazza del Popolo) on February 14, 269 CE. After his death, this gate was known as Porta Valentini, but that name faded into history. While he was in prison he sent messages to his friends saying, “Remember your Valentine!” and “I love you.”

Can you imagine the story moving from God’s “agape” love from a believer to “eros” and modern Hallmark cards for lovers? Of course you can. It is what people do with the testimony the church doesn’t insist is kept alive in our culture!

Here is the truth: If believers don’t hold on to the truths of the events of our faith – the world won’t do it for us. The USE our faith to make more products and get more wealth. Those who know what God said must make a priority out of keeping the truths of God’s Word a part of our celebrations, and allow the world to observe how these things have changed us.

5. Shepherds (2:8-20) – representing a caring few!

We can all remember the shepherds and their involvement on that strange night:

Luke 2:8 In the same region there were [some] shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “This [will be] a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds [began] saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”…

Look at the way the Heavenly army framed the coming of the Savior. They offered a Savior, a sign and a song – and off they went. Did they go with anticipation and joy, or solemnity and sorrow? I think of the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

“It is joy to all nations that Christ is born, the Prince of Peace, the King who rules in righteousness…Beloved, the greatest joy is to those who know Christ as a Savior…The further you submit yourself to Christ the Lord, the more completely you know Him, the fuller will your happiness become. Surface joy is to those who live where the Savior is preached; but the great deeps, the great fathomless deeps of solemn joy which glisten and sparkle with delight, are for such as know the Savior, obey the Anointed One, and have communion with the Lord Himself…you will never know the fullness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the power of the Holy Spirit you take the Lord your Master to be your All in all, and make Him the fountain of your intensest delight.“

6. Simeon (2:28) – representing anxious believing Israel!

On the eighth day, Jesus needed to be named and circumcised. Joseph and Mary took him to the Temple in Jerusalem, where He first shed His blood for the covenant with Abraham.

Luke 2:21 And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was [then] called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. … 25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation, 31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.” 33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this [Child] is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul– to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.“

Imagine standing on the south porch of the Temple that day! You moved into the line at the Mikveh (the ritual bath) and emerged from its chamber with a ticket that said “cleansed”. You made your way into the Hulda gates, your ears catching portions of the crowds singing as they entered the Temple of the Lord. Up the stairs you climbed, and onto the open space of the Gentile court. You turned back, and the crowd was gathering around an old man who was prophesying. He was proclaiming that what God said in the PAST WAS COMING TRUE and what God was promising for the future would also be upon them people in the days to come. The celebration of Messiah’s coming was seasoned throughout with people who proclaimed God’s faithfulness to His prophetic word!

In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner applied the modern study of probability to eight prophecies regarding Christ. He offered these words: “The chance that any man might have …fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000″ (one hundred quadrillion). Stoner suggested by way of illustration that “if we take 10 to the 17th power in number of silver dollars (which we could not do) and lay them on the face of Texas (which because of the value – we WOULD not do!)… they will cover all of the state two feet deep. If we were to mark one silver dollar and mix the mass thoroughly… and if we were to blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up [that one marked silver dollar.] What chance would he have of getting the right one?” Stoner concludes, “Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man,…providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.” – Peter Stoner, Science Speaks.

7. Anna (2:38) – representing the people God redirected!

If there was ever a case of God’s redirection, it was in the life of Anna. She learned a critical lesson: God may call upon you to reset your personal expectations to be of best use to His service:

Luke 2:36 “And there was a prophetess, Anna (shortened: Channah, or “Grace”) the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. 38 At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Anna was very old by the time we are introduced to her in the Word. She was widowed after a marriage that lasted only a brief seven years. Now eighty-four years old, Anna learned patience and dependence upon God. She fasted and prayed day and night, never leaving the Temple. She was not like most women of her time. She chose a different path. Instead of finding her identity in a second marriage and raising children – she heard God’s direction and went a different way than people expected. She chose to serve the Lord. Her expectations, probably the same as other women of her day, were dramatically altered by God’s superintending in her life. She learned to move through the terrible pain of losing her husband, relying on God to financially and emotionally meet the needs of her life.

The people who have encouraged me the most were the people who over the long haul of life have learned to drink from the well of satisfaction from the Lord even when their life circumstances were not ideal. Sixty-five years of waiting is incredible patience to wait for anything – much less a baby to mark the redemption. God is in no hurry! We will not experience instant depth, instant passion, instant deep praise. Genuine change of heart takes time. Genuine weaning of self-satisfaction to God’s purposes requires time and a painful transition as I leave the throne of my heart and He takes it.

What if Anna decided not to come in on Tuesdays because she was feeling lazy? What if she accommodated her feelings of disobedience and thought: I don’t feel like looking for the Messiah this morning – I will go in latert? The blessings of being obedient far outweigh the temporary satisfaction of placating my wants and desires.

Luke 2:38 At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

Others are defined by their roles – Anna’s role was stripped from her and THEN God defined her real purpose. God used her in spite of being the definition of poor and hopeless. She was not forsaken, she was being set up to accomplish her life’s purpose!

One after another, the people of Luke’s account gave PRAISE to God for what He did in sending His Son! Can we not do the same?

In the midst of the moral collapse of our generation, can we not ask: “What happened to our JOY as believers?”

I recognize the need for sobriety in these days. I see the same news you do. Yet. GOD invaded the planet. His salvation is now freely available – regardless of my background and any of my past failings. I can KNOW GOD, I can WALK WITH GOD… and all of that happened because Jesus put on skin and took my place in the penalty of my rebellion.

He came to set men free! We can hang our long faces as much as we choose to – allowing the enemy to make those who have been set free weep like the world is still bound in chains… but it IS NOT! The Son has come to dispel the darkness, to break the chains, to lift the fallen, to crush the enemy. The Savior has become our Rescuer, and our lives need not be dominated by the momentary issues of the flesh. We CAN celebrate. We SHOULD celebrate. Our world will be nothing but dreary if those set free by Messiah succumb to living like they are still in chains. Truly, the proper response to the Good News of Messiah is thanksgiving and praise, filled with JOY!

God on the Move: “Making Connection" – Acts 9-11; 1 Cor. 12

It was fifty-two years ago this summer that President John F. Kennedy announced the launch of the Telstar Communications Satellite that connected in near “real time” the European continent to the USA by way of microwave signal. This was the first “instant wireless signal”, that allowed for both dynamic two-way communication and live picture broadcast. That first television broadcast was, in fact, the press conference that “linked” the western world together, and bridged the ocean without the physical constraints of tethering wires. In a real way, this was the beginning of wireless connection that has connected much of the world together without wires. You may be interested to know that there are now just over 7 billion people on the planet, and 6.8 billion cell phones. It is true, not every area of our globe is covered, and some people have multiple phones, but I doubt President Kennedy could have envisioned that a single satellite would begin connections that would put whole computers in purses and pockets of people around the globe in the form of cell phones… We live in the connected world, and most of us don’t even think about it.

Hold that thought about connection, because it is extremely relevant to our lesson from the Word… For a few moments, I want us to take another step together in our studies on the “Life and Ministry of Saul of Tarsus”, better known to believers as the Apostle Paul – and look at how the important lesson of connection was forged in his life…

We met Saul at the stoning of Stephen recorded in Acts 7, and took a quick overview of his life and ministry – just to get our “feet wet” in the details of his life. In the second study, we watched as Jesus broke the proud stride of the “Pharisee on a mission” and cast him to the ground in a blinding light. He met Jesus there, and Jesus took away his physical sight for three days, to give him spiritual insight that would change his eternity. Though well-educated and erudite before meeting the Savior in a vision, we noted that Saul wasn’t ready until he relearned the basics of life, and then had intense training for an extended period under the work of the Spirit’s transformation and Jesus’ discipleship in the desert. We watched Saul take his “first steps” in his new faith – and then celebrated the work of God in him over seven years of reshaping.

In this lesson, we want to bridge the gap between his time of early learning and his first mission journey, by looking at the Scripture for the next move of God in his life. Let’s summarize where we are this way:

• First, we can observe the thirty plus years of life of a Pharisee who loved the Law – but didn’t have a personal relationship with God.

• Second, the Word offered an excellent picture of the meeting place between the Savior and the would-be servant.

• Third, the early training and reshaping took place in initial success in Damascus and a hiatus in the desert to learn from the Savior, followed by an attempt on his life. Escaping Damascus, he met some key leaders of the faith but got a vision to from God to leave Jewish ministry and head for the diaspora – back to Tarsus. The temptation to “jump ahead of God’s call” was overcome, and Saul got busy ministering in small places, and learned faithfulness long after the newness wore off.

• Now we see the one lacking piece that will make or break the rest of his ministry – the careful making of connection to the other believers in the body of Christ (the church). With this, we see an important principle…

Key Principle: The believer was not called to follow Jesus alone, but to work in vital connection to the body of Christ.

The Apostle Paul carried the weight of the believers of his day – there is no doubt about it. He felt it when they turned on one another, hurt one another, or acted sinfully and brought derision on the name of the Savior. He constantly urged the believers to see themselves as connected together – all ONE in Christ. In one discussion, as Paul was writing about spiritual gifts – those special enabling powers given by God at the time of our salvation – he told the believers at Corinth that they were joined together… they were part of one another. He wrote:

1 Corinthians 12:12 For even as the body is one and [yet] has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not [a part] of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less [a part] of the body. … 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. … 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” … 24 … But God has [so] composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that [member] which lacked, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but [that] the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if [one] member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. (NASB)

When we read that passage, there are five things that become very clear:

• First, any differences between believers (in terms of their exercise of gifts) must not suggest a different body connection, only a different function within the body. We are all pulling together in Christ – even if we are doing it differently than our best Christian friend.

• Second, our backgrounds aren’t supposed to be a dividing factor. Our race, our past and our status in society are melted away as we join with one another.

• Third, every role in the body is important – though not all are as “visible” to the whole.

• Fourth, individuals may find a cause to rejoice or cry – and we are to be able to it together. We are joined to each other in grief, sorrow, joy and celebration!

• Fifth, connection is the key to healthy activity. A body that loses a part loses health and wholeness. In the same way, we are to grow into our need of one another – caring about the absenting of one from the others.

Here is my question: “How did Paul come to that conclusion?” I know, you and I recognize the words were not merely Paul’s own – but he was moved by God’s Spirit to write what he did. At the same time, he agreed with the words. How did he grow from the rugged individualist leader type to one who was so very connected to others? I suspect God taught him through the incredible benefits of connection. In the early stages of his ministry, just as he was learning to be faithful in the small assignments, God was sculpting Paul. He was learning the value of connection.

Five Advantages of Connection:

I have been finishing the work on my upstairs bathroom, and have been putting the cabinetry on the walls, and finishing the wiring of the bathroom. To help me get the look Dottie wanted, we went to IKEA. Someone has quipped that IKEA is Swedish for “puzzle maker” – and if you have ever bought their products you know why that is both funny and painful. I admit it – I love their cabinets and rooms, but have never seen so many parts simply to hang a door! In the thousands of little pieces they give you as part of the pack, I have only one warning… be careful to keep everything together and organized. You will need every little Swedish “do-dad” they give you to put their furnishings together! Those little connectors are essential!

While we are thinking about those little connectors, let’s think about the “body connectors” that we have for the body of Christ. We get together in tons of little meetings. Many of them are not very important on the face of them – but people who pray and play together learn to stay together. When you know people well, it is harder to begin to believe bad things shared with you about them. You KNOW them… and that happened because of countless meals together, meetings, little tasks – time spent together! There are INCREDIBLE ADVANTAGES TO CONNECTION. I want to mention five of them that Paul learned at this stage of his walk – just before God called him into mission service along dusty roads, on wind-whipped ships, and surrounded by the smell of cooking pig meat.

Connection offers protection (Acts 9:29-30)

First, connection offers protection when the enemy attacks – and he WILL attack. Look in Acts 9:29-30:

9:29 And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic [Jews]; but they were attempting to put him to death. 30 But when the brethren learned [of it], they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

In our last lesson we breezed by the death threat against Paul. It was an important lesson to the young Christian – that walking with God was not going to be without it enemies and hazards. In fact, when you gave your life to Christ, the enemy of Jesus became YOUR enemy as well. As an unbeliever, Satan had no reason to get too far into your life. Most of the damage in terms of sin came from the influence of the world (where Satan has a hand) and the works of the flesh (which are bent toward evil since the Fall of man). Yet, when you surrendered your life to Jesus to follow Him and trust Him – you got a target on your back. If you move forward with your witness – you should expect the wicked one to pay attention to you in a whole new way!

Though other believers cannot put on all the spiritual armor God called the believer to wear – your brothers and sisters in Christ DO have a role to play when you are under attack. Do you remember where Paul wrote about the connection that offers protection? Ephesians 6 reminded the believers at Ephesus of the common Roman armor they saw everyday as soldiers passed through the city. Paul took inventory and assessed the implements for a fight – then applied those pieces of armor to the spiritual war. He urged the believers of Ephesus to be strengthened in God’s power (10). How?

1) By using the resources God gave them (Eph. 6:11);
2) By identifying the real enemy (Eph. 6:11b-12);
3) By deliberately putting on all the protection provided by God (Eph. 6:13).

Paul wrote of two types of armor:

The FIRST TYPE was that armor which must always be at the ready. If there was a lull in the battle, the fighter was not to remove the first three implements. He indicated that in the verb form “always having” the:

a. Belt of truthfulness: (alethia: truth as content) vulnerable area, carefully protected (14); Paul was not addressing the truth of salvation (as in v. 17 and the sword, Word), but rather the commitment to truthfulness of the believer!
b. Breastplate of righteousness (holy choices): covering heart, able to take direct blows when positioned correctly (14b), breaks your heart when not maintained. In the Hebrew world, the “heart” is the mind! (Prov. 23:7; Mark 7:21). Paul does not refer to self-righteousness (Eph. 2:8-9), nor of imputed righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21), but of a life practice of righteousness, or holy living.
c. Sandal guard straps fixed in position to provide a firm stand with the Gospel: metal tabs that protected the surface of the foot with cletes to hold the soldier in place. Paul refers to the unmovable faith in the Gospel to bring peace in the life of the lost.

The SECOND TYPE of armor was indicated in the poor translation of “Above all” (v.16). The grammar was NOT indicating the shield is more important, but is linked to the verb form of all of the next three items. They were to appropriate at the time necessary the:

d. Blocking shield of faith (theuron; large shield to block arrows; 4.5 feet by 2.5 feet., cp. Psalm 18:30). His reference is not to “belief” as such, but to “trust” that changes our view of ourselves and the world around us. When the battle rages, use the shield. 1) they were effective when locked together; 2) they were effective when held tightly and trusted and all remained in place.
e. Helmet of salvation (refers to the protection of the transformed mind) when we understand that our salvation has a PAST aspect: justification; a PRESENT aspect: sanctification; and a FUTURE aspect, our eventual glorification. We must see things through God’s eyes and learn to call the battle by His Word!
f. Sword of the Spirit: the WORD (RAMA: From the word “to pour, an utterance”) of God. The “machaira” dagger is not the broad sword, rhomphaia). A specific Word from God that He gives to take a direct shot at the enemy!

It is the blocking shield that reminds us of the protection from connection. Only a wall of shields would block, intimidate and cause advance. Alone, the soldier was just a guy with a leather covered device. Together, the wall of soldiers was ghastly if they were advancing on your line!

Let’s be clear: the enemy always looks for the believer that thinks they can stand alone. Without accountability, without engagement of others, without placing ourselves deliberately under the spiritual authority of godly men – we are like the wandering wildebeest on the prairie – we look much like “supper” to a hungry lion.

Connection offers inspection (Acts 11:19-24)

Deliberate connection to the body also offers something else – it offers the opportunity to have our life inspected by another. That isn’t the negative that some may hear. Listen to the passage that helped shape the early church’s sense of inspection:

Acts 11:19 So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and [began] speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and [began] to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain [true] to the Lord; 24 for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.

God was doing something in Antioch that wasn’t happening in Jerusalem. In fact, Jerusalem had no desire for it to happen. God was opening the door to the Gentile world – a blessing that became the most disturbing problem to the early church of the first century. Many of the epistles, letters written from church leaders to local churches and other leaders, addressed that very issue.

The text related that most believers were sharing the message of Jesus WITHIN Judaism, even after they began to scatter with rising persecution (Acts 11:19). A few began to speak to Greeks – whether they were proselytes to Judaism or not we do not know – but they clearly went outside the normal frame of practiced ministry. Remember, the whole “church thing” was still new. Remember also that Jesus promised the Apostles they would be called upon to “bind” (forbid) and “loose” (allow) things as they sought the Spirit’s direction (Matthew 18:18).

When believers heard about the ministry to the Gentiles, they dispatched a godly and encouraging man to look carefully into the matter. What he found shocked, and then delighted him. God was doing something no one foresaw! He encouraged them to continue, and many came to Christ (Acts 11:23-24). The connection between the groups made inspection possible, and allowed the believers to share even greater joy – instead of one group hiding what they were doing from another out of fear. Why? Connection tears down fear. It bridges differences. It allows us to explain ourselves to a caring ear, so that we are challenged if wrong, and strengthened if correct. The group felt affirmed, understood and even more interconnected as a result of Barnie’s visit!

Connection offers endorsement (Acts 11:25-26)

Paul probably heard about what happened in Antioch later, but he also personally experienced it a short time after the first Greeks were coming to Jesus. Follow the story as Dr. Luke offered it…

Acts 11:25 And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

What incredible verses! Saul was about seven years old in Messiah, and he was faithfully serving God while making tents. He was part of the fellowship of churches – teaching and sharing –but he was “nobody particularly important” at that time. It was the connection that Barnabas made to him that changed all that.
Barnie knew what Saul had to offer. He recognized the need for a critical thinker, as well as a careful learner of the Word. Barnie was convinced that God was at work, but he knew that his evaluation needed to be examined in light of the Word of God. Who better than that tough minded Pharisee from Tarsus? Saul followed because Saul felt connected. They met for a year with believers in Antioch because they knew they were connected to one Savior, fighting one battle, working for one cause.

Did you note the outcome? Of course there were some great Bible studies, and yes… there were no doubt more added to the Lord… but look at the end of what we read…Christians got their name! They first LOOKED LIKE a body of Christ – sounding like the Savior and acting in that familiar loving yet decisive way. They got called “Christians” because they acted like “little Christs” – followers in DEED. Connection offered the opportunity for Saul to be endorsed by Barnabas, and it offered the opportunity for the whole body to be commended as walking like Jesus!

Connection offers context (2 Corinthians 12:2-7)

It would be easy to skip an important event that appears to have happened right at this time. About fourteen years after the events of Acts 11, Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, and he mentioned an event that probably fit the time we are studying – so it is worth mentioning. Saul was not ONLY learning how to walk with Jesus and serve Him from other leaders, he was learning from the Master Himself. Once again, a vision assisted Saul’s growth – and it will help us to see how God used connection to set the vision in a context of ministry to people. First, the record:

2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago– whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows– such a man was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know how such a man– whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. 5 On behalf of such a man I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to [my] weaknesses. 6 For if I do wish to boast I will not be foolish, for I will be speaking the truth; but I refrain [from] [this], so that no one will credit me with more than he sees [in] me or hears from me. 7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me– to keep me from exalting myself!

Paul was in the midst of a letter that offered three basic statements. 2 Corinthians offered an explanation in chapters 1-7 as to why Paul told the church at Corinth he was coming, but then did not show up. In chapter 8-9, Paul renewed his expectation that the people of Corinth would complete the collection for the believers at Jerusalem. In the end of the letter, Paul exhorted the believers of Corinth to follow proper leadership and behave well (2 Cor. 10-13). While the letter had a somewhat defensive tone in places, it was clear that some believers in Corinth were “bad mouthing” the Apostle in his absence. Some thought they were “just as qualified” to offer God’s direction as Paul – and they said so! They were arrogant in his absence, and his connection to them would help them get back in line.

The passage we read was about Paul’s own opportunity to visit Heaven in a vision. God used that, as he did long before with Ezekiel, to secure Paul through difficult days. His glimpse at the majesty of our God bolstered him through troubled times. Yet it was very personal. The things he saw were not to be shared – they were for him alone.

Did he get a “big head” and walk arrogantly because of the vision – not really. He got along with God’s deep and abiding encouragement something else. He got a “thorn in the flesh”. He got a weakness. God didn’t just want to him to be strong and privileged – but dependent and weak. The GREAT APOSTLE PAUL would need others to do the late night writing and correspondence – because his eyes evidently were not always working. Connection offers us a way to be real, to place all our blessing in a context of real life – and to walk with others as ONE OF THEM. Paul was connected to Christ by his incredible spiritual vision – and connected more deeply to other believers because of his faulty physical vision. Paul could set his blessings in the context of his needs, and be a balanced and loving follower of Jesus.

Connection offers expanded vision (Acts 11:27-30; 12:25-13:3)

Just as Barnabas found that God was expanding the vision of ministry, so Paul learned that in the body were some attuned to needs he would not have sensed. Luke offered:

Acts 11:27 Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them named Agabus stood up and [began] to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the [reign] of Claudius. 29 And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send [a contribution] for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. 30 And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

Then later Luke offered:

Acts 12:25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with [them] John, who was also called Mark. Acts 13:1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was [there], prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

Look at both of these scenes and you cannot help but notice that God worked through the body of Messiah – as one part of the body was called on to assist the other part. Agabus made the room aware that trouble was coming. Others devised a plan to assist the fledgling church at Jerusalem and the Judean villages. Together they could tackle what no one could do alone. Together they could see what they could not see alone.

Later, after Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch, it was in the prayer meeting of the body that God set aside Barnabas and Saul for the work they were to do for Him. It was from their knees that God spoke to the ROOM, so that no one could later claim the men were self-appointed. A prayer meeting of the body yielded the first piercing into the darkness of the Roman world beyond the “drift” of the Gospel.

James Montgomery Boice told a story back in the days he pastored in Philadelphia. He spoke of Lawrence of Arabia visiting Paris after World War I with some Arab friends. He showed them around Paris, but what fascinated them most was the faucet in their hotel room. They spent hours turning it on and off; they thought it was wonderful. All they had to do was turn the handle, and they could get all the water they wanted. When time came to leave, Lawrence found them in the bathroom trying to detach the faucet. They explained, “It is very dry in Arabia. What we need are faucets. If we have them, we will have all the water we want.” Lawrence had to explain that the effectiveness of the faucets lay in their connection to the pipeline.

I am living in a time when believers don’t seem to realize that our power is not only from connection to the Spirit and to the Word – but also to each other. We were called to live, to walk and to serve in the context of community. The body of Christ has far too many parts that are proudly disconnecting themselves – and they are losing strength in the process. When the Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul out, it was not in disconnection – but in extension.

I want you to think for a moment about some men traveling in a river on a small raft. They didn’t realize until too late they were close to waterfalls and rapids, and the small raft was being tugged more and more swiftly by the sweeping current into the rocks of the rapids. The men began to panic. Knocked from the raft, one man after another struggled as they were pulled toward the falls, and toward a certain death. One man spotted a tree limb growing from the shore and glanced off a rock in the direction of the shore, grabbing the limb and working his way slowly toward the shore. The limb was small and weak, but with patience and struggle – that man was safe on shore. In the meantime, another man saw a large log – it looked strong and stable. He grabbed the log as it moved by, and that choice led him to the falls and to his death. Though the log looked stronger, it was unattached to the shore. It was unconnected. It didn’t lead to safety or strength. It led to death. (RS).

Believers must learn to connect and work at connection. That connection provides protection, inspection, endorsement, context and expanding vision. The believer was not called to follow Jesus alone, but to work in vital connection to the body of Christ.

God on the Move: “False Start”- Acts 9, 2 Corinthians 11

What does MARINATING SAUCE, an NFL LINEBACKER and a GIRAFFE CALF all have in common? Today is your day to find out! But more on that later…

“It is hard not to take off when there is so much at stake!” I could SO understand what the linebacker was saying in that locker room interview. Yet, the false starts cost penalties, and the penalties probably cost the team the game and the series. You can understand the problem. That man is lined up opposite some of the largest and most powerful men any of us will ever have the misfortune of opposing. Every player is hungry to win. No player wants to miss a “beat”. Each wants to cover his man or his territory… but the quarterback’s syncopated count can easily draw the overanxious into stepping forward on the line at the wrong time. False starts happen all the time in the NFL. Once a player jumps over the line of scrimmage before the ball is in play – a penalty ensues… because false starts incur penalties.

Unfortunately, they happen all the time in LIFE too… They happen when young people rush to feel grown up and engage in activities that are Biblically wrong and emotionally harmful for the stage of life they are in. The penalties for sinful engagement include mental tapes of memories that do not please God, along with a raft of other consequences. A false start happens when a couple rushes into marriage – and then finds the need for hours of counsel to unravel the mess they make in each other’s lives to get back to the beginning of the marriage and make it work. There is a penalty for “false start” marriage. Since marriage is a covenant to remain together no matter what happens, Biblically sensitive people that unadvisedly rush into marriage should plan hours of counseling in their “Day Timers”. False starts happen when we make that major purchase and sign for the credit, without carefully measuring the effect on our bank account and monthly expenses. The months and years that follow help us reflect on why that was a bad decision – but we are stuck in it. The penalties are numerous, but I suspect don’t need much elaboration for many who are considering this lesson.

Our story today is not about someone who made a “false start” by doing something morally wrong. Rather, it is a warning about the need to allow a time for education and transformation from the Spirit of God and the “marinating in the Word” that is necessary to be fully useful to the Lord.

We have to admit that we are a culture that is much more about DOING than PREPARING. We seem to want to “get right into things”! At the same time, this isn’t a new phenomenon. If there was anyone that would have been tempted to push past the training stage, it was the Apostle Paul. After all, he came to Messiah with substantial pedigree and accomplishments – even in the Word itself! Not only that, but his forceful personality and keen mind would have made listening to “lesser speakers” a difficult task at least, while allowing the misuse of Scripture in a class where he was sitting would be absolutely an intolerable circumstance. He was a man that was given a mind and voice for God, and wanted to use it… but God knew that tempering and soaking in God’s Word and Spirit was essential. It is for that reason God “benched” Saul of Tarsus for a time, then led him through obscure ministry in small circles before He released Saul to the greater ministry of church planting and Apostleship ministry. This time included critical lessons learned in the heat of the desert, and the apparent insignificance of the more rural regions of Cilician and Syria before God opened to Paul his life’s assignment. Those training years offered setbacks that helped Paul later in the ministry to recognize God’s good hand despite tough times. Here was the big lesson…

Key Principle: God is in no hurry unfolding His outreach plan and His personnel assignments.

He works at seasoning, training and molding carefully each servant He will use for important upcoming assignments. As a result, we must stop rushing God’s transformation and let His changes both inform and infuse us.

It can be incredibly hard for a zealous, young believer to have the patience to follow God and not drag God along behind him or her. God’s plan is GOD’S PLAN… and He is under no obligation to match my timing, or my insightful understanding as to how things should play out. I must learn to listen to His voice, follow His lead, and rest in His arms when He blocks the way forward. Look at the place Saul of Tarsus learned these lessons. There are three passages that overlap. The first is from Dr. Luke’s record in the Book of Acts:

Acts 9:19b: “…Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, 20 and immediately he [began] to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and [who] had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?“

Before we look carefully at the passage, let’s be clear – we are not talking about LAZINESS in the Kingdom. Saul wasn’t set aside and drawn in slowly because he was reticent to jump in – quite the opposite. Saul was, like anyone who comes to Christ with a leadership personality, only too eager to move into the ministry without allowing time to have his mind transformed and renewed… and the church is often so eager to see this work that it may not easily recognize the need for curing, maturing and tempering…

Look at what happened when he first found Jesus and had his eyesight renewed! The Saul that condemned those who followed Jesus went right in to the Bema of the “Straight Street Synagogue” and began preaching the message of the Risen Christ (Acts 9:19-20)! People were not sure what to make of what he was saying (Acts 9:21). This record reminds us of some significant problems we create in “jumping the gun” on training:

Problem 1: When we move too quickly people are DISTRACTED by US – and may not be able to properly evaluate the message we bring.

There are some who believe that those who come to Jesus should immediately be put “on the line” to evangelize. They argue that these are people with the most direct contacts with the world – because they have just made a decision to come to Jesus. With a greater list of contacts, it is easier to engage lost men and women. The argument is repeatedly made: “We are called to make disciples of Jesus!” and off they run, pulling the uninformed and untransformed behind them. The zeal of the new convert makes the call for immediate action an appealing transition from the old life – but it is as dangerous as placing men on the front lines of a physical battle without a “boot camp” training experience.

Again, we are not arguing for laziness, and certainly one can – and should – share Christ with those around them as a natural part of “not denying Him before men” (cp. Mt. 10:33, though the context of that passage is not exactly and directly applicable in many cases). There is a need for holy boldness, and a call for spiritual sensitivity for the lost from the day of our new birth. At the same time, there is a need to for transformation of our minds and tempering of our spirit by God’s Spirit – and that process is not instantaneous regardless of the knowledge we possess at salvation. Here is the truth:

We cannot make disciples until we learn how to become one.

We will not get people to truly follow Jesus until we learn to follow Jesus. For that reason, Paul later revealed that God stepped in at the moment Saul was growing in strength and sent him away. Compare Acts 9:19-21 with a later writing that offers another window to the lessons of the early days to the Galatians. In this passage, the Apostle is reflecting back on what happened in his early days with more specificity than Luke recorded in Acts:

Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. 15 But when God, who had set me apart [even] from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.

Even with all the training that preceded his coming to Christ, there was a need for the Saul of Tarsus to get alone with Jesus and learn to follow Him. The point of Galatians 1 was clearly to argue that Saul received his message from God, and not a consensus vote of any earthly group, but the fact is that God stepped in and sent him off when the Master could have used him mightily from day one.

Acts 9 is a truncated record of what took place in Saul’s early ministry. The order of the events, if one looks carefully at Galatians 1, appears to be as follows:

1. Baptism by Ananias in Damascus (Acts 9:18).
2. Preaching right after his salvation in the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:19-21).
3. An extended time in Nabatea (probably in modern Jordan) for discipleship by the Savior (Gal. 1:13-17).
4. After training, another campaign in Damascus led to the plot to kill him – a long time after his salvation (Acts 9:22-25). Look at the record of Saul’s return to Damascus in Acts 9:

Acts 9:22 But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this [Jesus] is the Christ. 23 When many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death; 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through [an opening in] the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

Luke signaled that 9:23 was LONG AFTER 9:19 and 20, but is is easy to miss in the narrative. It appears that since Saul could become the DISTRACTION, God’s pattern was first to change him – and ground him with sufficient stability to preach the Gospel in the face of steady opposition. This highlights a second problem:

Problem 2: When we move too quickly we haven’t grown strong and stable enough– and that will cause us to be too easily removed from the battle.

Consider the sufferings that were ahead for the Apostle Paul! Ask yourself, “What kind of training should Paul have had to be prepared for this list?”

2 Cor. 11:23b “…Are they servants of Christ? — I speak as if insane– I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine [lashes]. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 [I have been] on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from [my] countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 [I have been] in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from [such] external things, there is the daily pressure on me [of] concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?

Now let me ask you this” “Based on the way you see things going in our world, how strongly should we be training the next generation of believers?” Look at the list again in 2 Corinthians 11.

• Paul was trained to recognize the need to labor and not expect others to pay for God’s call in his life.

• Paul was trained to believe that God was faithful even when he was unfairly imprisoned for his faith.

• Paul didn’t think that knowing Jesus and the faithfulness of God was somehow breached when he was physically attacked – whether by “men” or by “nature”.

• Paul didn’t think that he was entitled in Christ to never be left hungry or thirsty – he saw God as meeting his needs even when his stomach growled and was empty.

• Paul recognized that ministry meant pressure, and that pressure wasn’t a sign that he didn’t trust God nor that God wasn’t being good to him – it was hard to carry the burdens of leadership of men and women in their sinful state.

I stopped reading in 2 Corinthians before I got to the point that Paul was making in the passage… that he was TRAINED for what he was doing beforehand. Look again at 2 Corinthians 11, this time in the ending verses of the chapter…

2 Corinthians 11:30 If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33 and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and [so] escaped his hands.

The apostle went back to the time, early in his ministry, when God first rescued him through the wall of Damascus. He had already learned that life wasn’t going to be amenable to his message, and that ministry for Jesus was going to be a battle. He learned that civil authorities were already going to be used by the “Prince of the Air” to fight the Prince of All Heaven. He was rescued from Damascus, but read the play and saw the hand of God because of the three years of training in the Arabian desert.

Let me say it plainly: A Christian that is trained to think that “God is faithful” only when their belly is full, when their bankbook is fat and when their government is encouraging is not ready for troubled times – but will be cut down quickly by a vicious and mighty fallen prince and his followers. Our spiritual training must change to that of the early church – to anticipate hatred and match it with love; to anticipate unfair treatment and match it with fervent and unending prayer; to anticipate physical weakness and need and match it with trust that God has not left us without the rich resources found in Him alone.

Our training must widen the eyes of disciples to recognize the historic reality that darkness has often seemed to be stronger than light – but that God will emerge victorious in the end just as He has promised. We dare not become impatient in trouble and allow circumstances alter our view of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Yet, these truths come from tempering and training – and will require (in many cases) a reversal of modern trends of discipleship instruction.

Paul didn’t just “learn it from Jesus” and then know everything. He needed to learn from other men and “fit into” the church structure if his ministry was going to be supported and successful for the Master. Yet, he needed to know the Master’s voice more than that of any other. The END of his training came with his beheading – not earlier! Let’s continue with the story of Saul’s early training with two passages that tell us what happened:

Acts 9:26 When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic [Jews]; but they were attempting to put him to death. 30 But when the brethren learned [of it], they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus. 31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.

Galatians 1:18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was [still] unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; 23 but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they were glorifying God because of me.

The three events that are referenced in Acts 9, Galatians 1 and in Acts 22 should be woven together in our minds:

• Paul’s trip to Jerusalem three years after his conversion (Galatians 1:18) – where he stayed with Peter for fifteen days (Galatians 1:17-18) – but saw only James and Peter was the setting of a vision setting out his Gentile ministry (Acts 22:15-21).

• When the plot to stop Paul’s disputations among Hellenistic Jews was uncovered at Jerusalem in that half-month, Paul was escorted to Caesarea and sent back to Tarsus (Acts 9:29-30). Some scholars believe the first of his shipwrecks may have occurred along the way home from Caesarea (2 Cor. 11:25).

• Paul preached from his home base in Tarsus, occasionally traveling to surrounding Syrian and Cilician territories (Galatians 1:21-24). He stayed there four or five years, when Barnabas sought him in Tarsus and brought him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26).

That means that although Paul came to Jesus in the year 36 CE – he wasn’t used by God as a missionary until at least SEVEN YEARS LATER. That helps us recognize the third problem…

Note: 2 Cor. 11:32 reminds that Paul escaped Damascus shortly after his salvation, while Aretas was king of Arabia (which took place between 36-39 CE). Eusebius recorded that Paul came to Messiah at the beginning of Aretas’ reign. The three years in Damascus and Nabatean territory would have taken place, by this reckoning, between 36-39 CE. The remaining years (39-44 CE) were likely consumed with Paul’s Tarsian and Cilician excursions until he was brought to Antioch.

Problem 3: When we move too quickly in our training we learn how to mimic other men –but not hear Jesus’ voice.

In the passages of Acts 9 and Galatians 1 we skipped an insightful few verses that explain Paul’s redirection by Jesus. For that we have to go to Acts 22. The text was one of Paul’s defenses after his arrest, and the detail he included fits exactly into the time we are looking at from his life history…

Acts 22:17 “It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance, 18 and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ 19 “And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 20 And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’ 21 “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’“

Here is the point: Paul was SO ready in the eyes of MEN to reach out to other Jews. He was a trained Pharisee. He had both the education, and the ability to lean into the Jerusalem synagogues and be heard. His voice would have been welcome in Jewish evangelism. No apostle could have been expected to do a better job in those tough rooms… yet that was not his calling. Jesus made clear that he was being sent to “pig eating pagans” instead.

Notice that even Paul OBJECTED in the passage. He was a KNOWN QUANTITY to the Jewish leadership. His transformation would have been easiest to map in front of those who knew him in his “before Jesus” days (Acts 22:19-20). Yet, Jesus commanded redirection. He commanded him AWAY from Jerusalem, and away from Jewish ministry. Paul was able to recognize the voice of Jesus, even if he couldn’t yet recognize the wisdom of God’s direction. That is what tempering does. That is what training yields. That is what transformation creates – ears to hear the Spirit’s call through the Word of God. A renewed mind is a mind that can hear from the Word of God and spiritually discern direction – in spite of the way it looks in the physical setting… but that takes time to learn.

Have you noticed that God’s early training of Paul wasn’t EASY? His training included some small successes (some people heard the Gospel and were unable to refute Paul’s testimony), but it also included things like death threats and hot retreats into the desert among strangers…Why didn’t God make it EASY for Paul? Because God is into preparation, not comfort. When everything is EASY, our growth is little. When it is hard, we learn to stand up.

Do you know how a giraffe is born? The average gestation period for giraffe is approximately 15 months (453-464 days). Giraffe gives birth at a ‘calving ground’ – mothers have been known to return to where they were born to have their own babies. In herds, calving is often synchronized to provide safety in numbers against predators. Yet, the process of having the calf seems very hard indeed! When the baby giraffe starts its journey down the birth canal, the mother seeks out a spot where there are no bushes, just flat open ground. The “momma giraffe” gives birth standing up, requiring the newborn to fall about two meters to the ground! Designed for such an abrupt entry into the world, a newborn calf can stand up and run within an hour of being born. When the calf hits the ground, it may not move of its own accord. If it rolls over and just lies there with legs all curled up under it, the momma may take her very strong legs and kick the calf, causing to fly across the dirt. If the calf does not stand up, the mother may go over and kick it again, until the calf finally stands up. She knows that the calf needs to learn, and her offspring must remember how to stand so it can save itself later in a time of danger.

Let me ask you to do something this week. “Stop asking God to end the swift kicking. Start asking Him what He has been trying to get you to learn!” And don’t forget… it will take time to soak in His Word and follow His voice… but you have His Spirit.

Look at the bright side: God didn’t make you a newborn giraffe!

Remember, God is in no hurry unfolding His outreach plan and His personnel assignments. He works at seasoning, training and sculpting carefully each servant He will use for important upcoming assignments. We need to sit in the soup and soak it in, and then allow the world to get it when it is squeezed out of us!

Following His Footsteps: “Dad’s Big Dreams” – Matthew 1 and 2

One day a year we honor the place and work of fathers, yet all year long many of us have learned to appreciate the work they are called to do. I am a father, and now a grandfather – and I have been reflecting in the early morning hours during the feeding of “McGoo” (my nickname for my grandson Malachi) on the work God called men to do. It was fortuitous that the next page in our study of the”Life and Ministry of Jesus” as told by the four evangelists was about the stand-in man God chose to play the father’s role in the life of Jesus as he was born in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt and later raised in Nazareth. It didn’t escape my notice that not much was said about Joe…. It was my experience with my own dad that fathering was sometimes like that.

You see, my dad wasn’t the “center stage” guy – but rather the quiet guy that dropped me off to the meeting and picked me up after it was over. He paid for my doctor and dentist visits, made sure they had purchased the necessary number of gym shorts for class, and took care of a tuition payment in a private, Christian school that could have easily made the payments for a new car every year. He did not stand on any stage, anywhere, and take a bow for what he did. He just did it, day in and day out…whether it was convenient or not, whether he felt like it or not. He never believed the modern myth that one can “have it all” – be a parent and still live for self.

In fact, it wasn’t until my graduation from high school that I learned how dad provided for more than a dozen kids. I applied to join the labor pool of the oil refinery my dad worked at his whole career… and I discovered a place that was filled with vulgarity, pornography and cynicism. It wasn’t that I didn’t meet some really good guys there – it was the fact that I was, perhaps for the first time, exposed overtly to the world my father worked to provide me with something different – something better – something where God would be honored and not maligned daily. In many ways, my father was a quiet discipler and provider that no one else ever would be. My point is that like my dad, Joe didn’t get a big stage and rousing applause from the crowd. He got the job of listening to God’s direction and then leading based on what God revealed – which the real job of any man. Joe is listed in the earliest pages of the Gospels, and then, like many fathers, he fades to the background as the son or daughter pushes ahead, not recalling until later the platform from which they launched.

In some ways Joe’s work was like any father – they were given a child by God, and they were to provide, protect and prepare them for the world they would face. Every dad has dreams for their child! In the case of sons in a godly home, they want them to be men of God, bold about their witness and loving and caring in their deportment. I cannot imagine that Joe’s heart was any different… God chose the right man for the tough job ahead!

It’s true that in SOME ways Joe’s job was similar to other men… but in other ways, Joe’s job was unique – beginning with the first public act a dad had in his time… naming their son. Joe didn’t choose the name – God revealed what it was to be. From the time of the first revelation of God to Joe through a dream… Joe knew the truth: his job wasn’t to live out his dreams through his son – but he would be a “stand in” for his Father in Heaven. The longer I parent, the more I see that as my role as well. We are stewards, not owners of our children.

In this lesson, I want to share a story about four dreams. The first one was in the heart of Joe before he ever knew Mary at all. Joe wanted to be significant, and he wanted to leave a legacy that mattered – like every man who ever held their son in their arms. His next four dreams required that he surrender his first dream to the Lord, so that God could do MORE with his life than he could have ever understood at the time – and answer his deepest longings through a Son that would change the world forever! The key principle for Matthew’s story of the beginning of Jesus’ earth walk is derived from watching Joe:

Key Principle: God will lead you if you surrender to His story and not make your life about your story! (Mt. 1:18-25).

To delve into the Joseph story, we have to look into the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. Both Matthew and Luke record genealogies, but that isn’t the only feature of the beginning stories of the “Pre-ministry” they disclose…in fact, the two Gospel writers offered details on several events before explaining the launch of Jesus’ earth ministry at His baptism by John in the Jordan River.

• Matthew focused on how God directed Joseph.
• Luke focused more on right responses to the wondrous message that God sent Messiah.

These are our next two lessons…one on Joe, and one on responses to God’s gift of Jesus…Traveling through the Holy Land, year after year, I have often wondered what Joseph and Mary would say if, as they reflected back to the birth of Jesus, they sat and listened to our Christmas carols and watched our Christmas plays. Do you really think Mary thought it was a “Silent night, Holy night?” I don’t know, but having been in the delivery room with each of my children…I am thinking she was just relieved the child was born and healthy… and she was probably exhausted.

Revealing Dream Number One:

Look at Matthew’s account of what Joe went through, and let’s see if we can pick out what he learned from the text…

Mt. 1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

Before drawing conclusions, look at the details of the text of Matthew 1:18-25:

• First, the story was given to tell you the CONTEXT of the birth of Jesus (1:18a).

• Second, the TIMING of the pregnancy was clear – Joe had not “been with” her, and was unaware at first of who the father of the baby could be (1:18b).

• Third, the TROUBLES of Joseph show he was contending with many decisions (1:19-20a).

He was a “righteous man”, which may be a translation of the Hebrew idea of “tsaddik” – an elder in a congregation. If that was the case, the reputational troubles were not his alone, but would be shared by his congregation.

He was a “tender man”, and though he no doubt felt disrespected by her, he didn’t want her to be subject to public derision.

The angel’s word to him in 1:20 shows that he was also a “fearful man” – unsure of what kind of woman Mary truly was, and how much he could even trust his own feelings and measures of what he thought she was. Whenever we are betrayed, some part of us blames ourselves for not perceiving more accurately the people that drew us into deception.

Now step back and look at REVEALING DREAM NUMBER ONE:

• Mary was cleared of any guilt or wrong against Joe – the “guilty party” was God Himself (1:20).

• God’s plan was made clear – a Boy was coming to save His people (1:21). This fit what God had already revealed in His Word (1:22-23).

• Joe was thoroughly convinced the dream was from God, and he did exactly what the messenger told him to do – despite what ANYONE in his life could have counseled him to do (1:24-25).

Joe might offer the lesson learned this way: “God works in ways I never would have imagined. One day you are just moving through life, living within the boundaries, and following God’s Word, and the next thing you know… there is a whole new set of issues in your life! Here’s the thing I took away from those early days… do what God says even when the outcome isn’t clear. If it squares with His Word, it is truth no matter what all my friends think. If I obey what He has told me, He will direct my next steps into His will!”

In just a few verses, God offered a great thumbnail sketch of a man used by God in a powerful way! He lived inside the boundaries of sexual purity and obedience. He learned the Scriptures and led a community with a careful, circumspect life. He sheltered the reputation of people in the story, and he was pliable when God spoke into his life. His path changed when God ordered it to change and verified that word by Scripture. In the end, Joe was a good man because he was a willing follower of God’s direction!

• Can you see in Joe a faithful leader without a vindictive spirit when hurt. Can you imagine his initial confusion, his embarrassment – maybe even anger?

• Can you identify that although he lived within the law, he understood authority but still wanted to show mercy. Joe was no Pharisee – just a guy trying to follow God and not wound people in the process.

Here is an important lesson that we cannot miss in his life: Joe’s fervent walk with God did NOT protect him from misunderstanding God’s program.

He responded to what God had revealed to him, and needed more revelation to alter course. Joe was told to abandon his plans to send her away – an overt call to surrender control of the situation based on experience and trust God’s Word. Joe was called to stop leading and FOLLOW. Remember: some men won’t take directions even when they are lost!

Joe was told to drop his mistrust and open his heart to raising a child given from the Spirit (1:20). Joseph should not fear taking this woman as his wife, for she had not been unfaithful to him – no matter what it would look like to friends and family (1:20). Marriage is a serious commitment, and faithfulness to that covenant is something God takes seriously. Without this revelation, Joseph should have feared. People who can’t make it faithfully through an engagement are a ticking bomb in a marriage, unless God transforms their heart!

Joe was told to reign in his emotions and ego and be obedient to the revealed Word. He could not shape this story – he was to FOLLOW. He was to give up the right to choose the name of the baby – a very great privilege that was well illustrated by Zecharias and John’s birth. The future of these sons was NOT in their earthly father’s hands – and they needed to surrender that in the beginning of the venture. At the same time, both Joseph and Zecharias got to fill the physical role of naming their sons. Joseph received the privilege of naming the boy according to God’s direction (1:21). Even though his role was diminished, he had a role. God didn’t cut him out, but loved him enough to include him.

The greatest lesson in the first dream was this: You cannot PREDICT LIFE, you cannot always UNDERSTAND LIFE – but you are called to FOLLOW GOD.

Don’t overlook the fact that God gave His Son to a man that He could trust to follow instructions! That makes me pause and wonder: What would God entrust to me if He KNEW He could count on me to follow Him through ANYTHING?

In order for Joe to be used by God, he had to “get over” himself. He had to face that God’s leading meant that his momentary feelings had to be subservient to God’s plan. God was working a plan through the misunderstanding and pain… because God was doing something far bigger than Joe could have imagined.

• Joe was thinking of his family and his leadership in a congregation – both important issues. God was planning to SAVE THE WORLD – a bit more significant.

• Joe was concerned that his role in God’s work might be damaged by things said in relation to this pregnancy – but God was going to give HIM the unique privilege of handling His Son, caring for Him in a way Adam didn’t so long ago. Joseph was going to be the first to look at the baby and utter the name “Yeshua” – Savior!

What is God calling on YOU to do that is HARD? What habit is hindering your walk? What ego-driven pursuit is clogging up your walk with God? When you lay your head on your pillow at night, can you see what is keeping you from surrendering your heart to God and following His Word? Are friends telling you, “It’s really ok!” – but you KNOW it isn’t! It is time to hear from the ancient lesson of Joseph.

The dream matched what God had long before promised. God had shared that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). He told through Daniel the timing of the coming (173,880 days after the command to rebuild Jerusalem in Daniel 9:26ff). He said that He would send one who was “God with us” in Isaiah 7:14. He promised He would bring light to the Galilee highway used by Gentiles in their international travels (Isaiah 9:6). He promised the Messiah as a child, born to His people and that child would be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) as He was when Thomas saw Him after the resurrection and cried out to Jesus in John 20:28, “My Lord and My God!” or when Paul called Jesus both God and Savior (in Titus 2 and 3).

Joseph awoke and followed what the angel told him to do, agreeing to abide to the covenant marriage but not consummating the marriage (1:24-26). Soon a Roman census was announced and Joseph journeyed to Bethlehem (his ancestral home, Lk. 2:1-4) with Mary. The child was born… in the event that Joe wasn’t “going to make a big deal about it” – God announced it over the hillside to some noisy nighttime shepherds. I’m sure the birth of Jesus was the worst kept secret in Bethlehem that night!

Time for a SECOND DREAM

Joe stayed on in Bethlehem for the duration of the census. In Rome, Censors were chosen from former Consuls of Rome (Consul was the highest office at the time beside the Emperor). Censors were selected every fifth year and given “Imperium” (the right of command by the Senate of Rome) to conduct a census, then follow it with the giving of contracts for bridges, roads and public works projects. As a result, it appears people in Provinces had their lives routinely disrupted at intervals. Joe was still in Bethlehem well after the baby Jesus became the toddler Jesus – and was visited by some eastern Magi (2:1-12). This “secret” was getting harder to hide – and now Herod the King was involved.

Joseph had a second revelatory dream – and this one was not to settle something INSIDE HIM, but rather to help him perceive an oncoming peril. Joe’s family was in danger, and he needed to move them to Egypt (outside the jurisdiction of Herod the Great) for a time (Matthew 2:13-15). Let’s examine the record:

Mt. 2:13 “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”

This – a second time God stepped in to work on behalf of Joe’s family – and to protect Jesus and the Redemption Mission. For Joe, the lesson of trust was deepened. The fact is that Joe was a dad, a husband, and a provider. His living was as a builder, and that work was not helped by all the interruption of forced moves. Rome moved him for a census – and now Herod moved him out of anger and jealousy… but in actuality GOD moved him. The “forced moves” of our lives are often God’s repositioning to get us to the right place for His plan.

From Joe’s perspective, it would be easy for him to conclude that he could not protect his family apart from God’s work on his behalf. He couldn’t choose to order where they would live. He was called to FOLLOW the One Who knew what he could not know.

The big lesson of the second dream was you CANNOT PROTECT people from life’s hardships – even yourself. You are called to FOLLOW GOD and let His protection be your only covering.

THE THIRD AND FOURTH DREAMS CAME

Joe knew that he couldn’t PREDICT LIFE, nor could he PROTECT PEOPLE HE LOVED FROM LIFE – he was just following God’s direction as God offered it. He moved with the family…Some time passed, and Joe waited as God held his little family in Egypt. The language was strange. The customs were pagan. The place was hotter and more uncomfortable than you can imagine. He probably lived off the gifts of the Magi and waited as his saving sunk lower and lower. His male desire to LEAD had been trimmed – but this was getting old. His male ego based on accomplishment was being badly eroded. The surrender process is never easy on leader types – and many men find following God a difficult thing.

Sometime after the death of Herod the Great, Joseph dreamed a third time. The angel of the Lord told him to bring the baby back to Israel’s homeland, and he moved the family back up to Nazareth in the land of Zebulon (Matthew 2:19-23):

Mt. 2:19 “But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Did you hear those verses? There were ANOTHER TWO DREAMS mentioned…Joe came back to Israel, heard who was on the throne and was afraid again. The continuing theme of his life is that he gets afraid – and that fear was matched, step by step with the direction of God’s Word. Joseph learned that God didn’t need him to be particularly COURAGEOUS… just carefully obedient to God’s revealed Word. When Joe followed, that was all the boldness God demanded to use His life for God’s glory.

The fact is, that Joe learned that he cannot become IMMUNE to fear and pain – but he could carefully follow God’s Word.

Joseph was reported to have died when Jesus was young. He apparently did not live to see Jesus become well known. Yet, his name and character are the stuff of legend.

These were HARD lessons: I cannot PREDICT LIFE, I cannot PROTECT PEOPLE FROM LIFE, and I cannot become IMMUNE TO LIFE’S FEARS – but I can follow God’s Word.

Let me ask you something: “Do you think he will say in Heaven, ‘It was worth it! I obeyed the Lord and it was truly worth it!’” I think Joe will be an eternal testimony to this truth: God will lead you if you surrender to His story and not make your life about your story!

Jesus said it best: John 12:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

Joe gave up HIS DREAM for GOD’S DIRECTIONS – but what did he truly LOSE? Nothing… nothing at all. He WAS SIGNIFICANT. He DID make a difference! He played his role for God… and that is all a man could ever DREAM of doing!

God on the Move: “Learning for the First Time, All over again!” – Acts 9

When I walked into her room, I knew she was changed from the woman I had come to know over the years. The first sign was the missing smile from her face, and the second the lack of her unusually boisterous voice saying, “Well if it isn’t the preacher man!” No, this time she sat in silence, with barely the ability to move her face at all. The stroke attacked all her functions, but left her in the frustrating state of full-minded imprisonment. She could think, but not speak; she could process but not deliver. In the months that followed, one by one, her brain was retrained to learn things all over again – things we don’t even think about doing anymore. She once told me that she was “learning things for the first time all over again!” – I knew exactly what she meant as I watched her do each…

I mention my old friend because her story illustrates in the physical realm what happened long ago to Saul of Tarsus in the spiritual realm. In fact, and many of us went through in our first “growing steps” of faith in Christ learning life all over again. Though his story was nearly two thousand years ago, his conversion was not dissimilar to many people I know. They may not have been “struck down on the road to Damascus”, but God cut deeply into their broken lives – and they weren’t ready for what God wanted to change. Let me see if by looking at Saul’s early steps, we can see more clearly the struggle, and then allow God to make sense of His solution to the issue.

Go back in our story and observe Saul the day BEFORE he met Jesus on the road. He was a competent and capable student of the Word of God, and he was a zealous follower of Temple politics. He had gained the confidence of his fellows early, and used that to build a reputation that was formidable. He exhibited neither laziness nor dull minded slowness – but none of those attributes made him a re-born child of God. He was enthusiastic and zealous, but lost in self-moved and self-measured religion. At the moment of the apogee of his human influence, Jesus cut him down on the roadway, and his life was forever changed. By the end of that conversion story (where we left him in our last lesson) he was blind, hungry and separated from those who understood his past or could perceive his incredible destiny. What happened next is the story of this lesson – the “first steps” of new faith…Yet there is a single principle underlying the text that we must bear in mind…

Key Principles: Some of the initial lessons of faith are the hardest simply because they set the expectation for the rest of our time of service to the King.

Seven Lessons for the “New Beginning”

Paul faced an entire change in his life – one that moved him from an enemy of the Cross to a follower of the Savior. Few men in recorded history have such a radical transformative event, and yet literally millions understand what happened to Paul. They may not have had their lives documented, but they understand the radical changes that come into a life interrupted by God’s grace. Having lived a dramatic life before his Christ encounter, Acts 9 opens up eight critical lessons that Paul needed to learn to help set the tone and expectation for his life “in Christ”. Don’t skip by these lessons, for they are not mere “place holders” in the story. Our expectations weigh heavily in our walk – for those who don’t learn what to expect can easily be drawn off course in discouragement when their false ideas are not confirmed.

Lesson One: God doesn’t always remove troubles instantly – because He works through difficult circumstances (Acts 9:8-9).

The first lesson that Saul needed to confront is found in these two simple verses:

Acts 9:8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Ironically, God blinded Saul so that he could get him to see the truth about life. God had an incredible plan for Saul’s life, but a man so competent couldn’t simply bound his way into that plan on his own power and with his own abilities. In fact, God could only get Saul to move forward by forcing him to a “dead stop”.

God didn’t just make him helpless… He left him in that state for three long days and nights. On the back side of the narrative that may not sound like a long time, but in the midst of it, Saul had no idea that this wasn’t going to be his “new normal” – and his whole life wasn’t about to unravel. There is no way Saul could be happy in darkness – but in the midst of the trouble, Saul could learn the meaning of JOY. Happiness is about what I am going through, while joy is about Who I am trusting as I pass through it.

Dwight L. Moody said it well, “Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can’t see and doesn’t know anything about.” [SOURCE: Dwight Lyman Moody as quoted by Edythe Draper, Draper’s Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992).

Saul needed to learn to trust God and not the circumstances – but he needed something even DEEPER – a lesson many have forgotten. God is not cruel when He delays respite from trouble. He has a purpose that is perfectly timed and properly placed into your life. You may not think so, but that is one way we can learn that we are not God. He is not a genie in our bottle, but a Creator, Sustainer and Master. I am the needy, He is the Knowing One. Trust will always be an issue if I don’t learn early that God does not use my watch to operate His Kingdom. That was the point of the three days and nights…

Here is the point: Either God gets to be God or He doesn’t. Either He chooses my path and I follow His lead, or I am faking the Christian life and trying to lead the dance of life. Saul needed that lesson – but so do we all.

Lesson Two: Your mission from God will require the involvement of others – because God works through teams (Acts 9:10-12).

A second lesson was also in order:

Acts 9:10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord [said] to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.”

It is easy for gifted, talented and capable Christians to miss the need for others – and it is a deep lesson we all need to take to heart. A few years ago, Galen Clark wrote this commentary about team members that I clipped out: “Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin had every reason as teammates to be friends, but they were not. Incognito harassed and bullied Martin. He called him a racial slur in a voicemail played by every media outlet in the country. He threatened to kill him and his family. Incognito claimed all of this was just locker room talk. It is the way the guys talk to one another in the NFL. Apparently, Martin didn’t get the memo. Martin left his lucrative job citing emotional issues and fearing for his life. Though we don’t know all the details, it appears as if Martin has some culpability, as well. He was far too passive in dealing with Incognito’s threatening behavior. As a teammate, it appears, he should have expressed how troubling Incognito’s threats were to him. These two men had many more reasons to get along than to have a toxic relationship. Consider all the reasons they had to be friends. They were both football players. On the same team. Had the same coach. Both were offensive linemen. Both played on the same side of the line. Both were starters. Both wanted to win. Both are big dudes. Both were millionaires. Yet somewhere along the way one or both of them forgot they played for the same team and began to treat the other like a New England Patriot. They forgot the enemy was in another city. They forgot enemy is on another team.” How often I have heard Christian conversation that seemed like brothers forgot where the battle truly can be found. Strong leaders need to be especially careful of the way they learn their need for others.

This past week I participated in a forum on doctrine for the fellowship of churches to which I belong. Men came together from across the country, and hours of discussions produced a newly affirmed doctrinal framework for our churches as we face the emerging issues of our time with renewed vigor and hope. It was a lively discussion with men who love Jesus and yet found themselves quite different from one another. All of us were called by One Lord, but we all felt drawn to specific issues and emphases in ministry – based on the path Jesus placed before us. Gathering together in one room, the energy of team and the gentle reasonableness of maturity overcame what could have been a very negative experience. I will not soon forget how positive this experience was for all of us.

One of the men that impressed me deeply was a long-time friend and fellow Pastor from a Pennsylvania church that tried (sometimes in vain) to “chair” the meeting. He was kind to all of us, careful in his speech, and affirming in his words. Yet, he had conviction in his voice and firmness in his words. I was encouraged by the combination.

Saul needed to learn to temper his voice with those God would place on his team. It isn’t always easy – especially when we are used to being the leading voice in the room. At the same time, it is an absolutely essential lesson – we cannot, we will not and we must not work alone in the Kingdom. Sometimes we have to go a long way to help people know we understand where they are coming from, and that we love them in spite of our differences.

Fred Parsons wrote many years ago a little story that makes the point: A grandfather found his grandson, jumping up and down in his playpen, crying at the top of his voice. When Johnnie saw his grandfather, he reached up his little chubby hands and said, “Out, Gramp, out.” It was only natural for Grandfather to reach down to lift the little fellow out of his predicament; but as he did, the mother of the child stepped up and said, “No, Johnnie, you are being punished, so you must stay in.” The grandfather was at a loss to know what to do. The child’s tears and chubby hands reached deep into his heart, but the mother’s firmness in correcting her son for misbehavior must not be lightly taken. Here was a problem of love versus law, but love found a way. The grandfather could not take the youngster out of the playpen, so he crawled in with him.

Sometimes the best way to show love is identify with the plight of another. It doesn’t rescue them, but it does give them comradery in the trouble! Seriously, Saul needed to learn the value of the team.

Lesson Three: Though your sin is forgiven, some troubles will still follow you – because God uses even our weakness to grow us to full stature in Christ (Acts 9:13-14).

A third lesson was just as essential:

Acts 9:13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”

The verses are clear – Saul was a known quantity in Ananias’ life, and not a desired one. The fact is that our reputation is forged over the long haul, and God’s forgiveness doesn’t automatically equal man’s forgiveness. If we were poor parents before we came to Christ, our adult children may not greet our new faith with open arms. We sinned against THEM as well, and that will take time to repair – if it can be this side of heaven. I doubt that Saul would have been fully embraced by Stephen’s family the first week of his new faith.

We all WANT to forgive people – but we have to admit it isn’t all that easy to do when the hurt was deep. Don’t take Ananias’ words too lightly. He wrestled with God because he didn’t KNOW if Saul was sincere in a change of heart.

Look at his words. “Lord, I know about this guy!” Was he implying that God didn’t? I don’t think so. I believe what he was doing was making clear something that Luke included in the text for a specific lesson to the church – When “all things become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17) for the believer the reference primarily concerns our state before God. The mortgage company doesn’t forgive our debts and our waist line doesn’t automatically shrink to a manageable and healthy level. Things that took a long time to break will take a long time to fix – unless God decides to chop into the norm with a miracle. He can – but often He chooses to let us learn to work our way back out of the problem. It is in working through our problems that God builds our strength, and teaches us patience for one another. After all, all the believers around you have their own dragons of the past to slay.

We make a terrible mistake when we try to apply the benefits of our “new life in Christ” to some guarantee that repairs to injured relationships and physical damage from poor habits will be either immediately healed or easily righted. God didn’t say that – poorly educated televangelists did. Real healing takes real work and real time. God can do it instantly, but that shouldn’t be our expectation – or we may set ourselves up for deep disappointment.

Lesson Four: God’s choice of you trumps any deficiencies you bring to the mission – because God chose the best vessel for the work He called you to (Acts 9:15).

Fortunately, for the last lesson, there is a balancing truth, found in the next verse…

Acts 9:15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;

Take a deep breath… God chose you. He knew what He was getting better than you knew what you were giving Him. He made you. You are genetically perfect for God’s call in your life. You aren’t from the wrong side of the tracks – but from exactly where you needed to be from to help you think the way you do. God has a chosen path for His children – and your job isn’t to invent it, it is to FIND IT.

It is ironic that Saul wasn’t the one learning this lesson in the text… Ananias was! Saul, like many great leaders, likely sensed God’s hand in his life. At the same time, Dr. Luke (the writer of the account) made clear that is what God told Ananias. God essentially said: “I’ve got BIG PLANS for Saul!” Go wanted to march him into places of power and give him the task to speaking truth to powerful men and women. His job wasn’t going to be easy.

Not to step off this lesson at all, but consider this: God is preparing in our midst some of the children and youths that will tackle the next great challenge of the Kingdom. We dare not take nursery duty lightly! Sunday School must be prepared well. Children’s ministry must include Godly models! Youth must be drawn into the study of God’s Word at the deepest level we are able to give them. The days ahead will require confidence and knowledge of the Word of God, and we must train them – for they also are chosen instruments of our Master.

Lesson Five: God’s plan for you may include living through times that are very uncomfortable for you – because God’s plan is set in a battle to redeem a fallen world (Acts 9:16).

A fifth lesson is both powerful, and in some ways, troublesome…

Acts 9:16 …for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.“

Consider how clear God was on the coming troubles for Saul of Tarsus. Why? Why didn’t God clear the path of trouble if He loved Saul and wanted his mission to succeed? Those are loaded questions. The truth is that there are a number of reasons – but one of them is that Saul needed to learn to trust God THROUGH the troubles, not just recognize that God was greater than his troubles. Let me illustrate what I mean with the words of a woman writer:

“[My daughter], Allison, came home for the weekend. She opened the door, didn’t speak, and dropped her duffel bag. Smudges of mascara circled her eyes. I whispered a “God-please-no” prayer. “Come tell me about your classes.” I patted the sofa. She muttered, “Gotta take a shower.” As she clomped upstairs, I analyzed the recent changes in her: complaints of not having any money, rarely answers the phone, weight loss, pinpoint pupils, and a “who gives a rip” [facade]. I searched her purse and found a leopard-colored pipe and the unmistakable sweet odor of pot. My heart fluttered wildly like a bird stuck inside my chest. She plodded down the stairs, hair in a towel, wearing the same wrinkled clothes. Be still and talk in a sweet voice, I told myself. You must convince her to stop. “We need to talk, honey.” “Not now. I’m tired.” “I found your pipe.” She stared at me with death-row eyes. “Chill, it’s not that big of a deal.” The tightness in the den suffocated me. I needed air. “Want to walk?” I asked brightly. “Like we used to?” “Whatever.” I knew I could talk some sense into her. “Honey, please. You’ve gotta stop.” I grabbed her hand. “Mom!” She jerked away. “We have a strong family history. You don’t want to…” I never got to finish the sentence. Allison stormed out of the room and within minutes was headed back to college. I knew what I had to do–abandon everything in my life and start to worry/fix/control full-time. I began spending most days by the phone. I evaluated Allison’s reactions, gestures, and comments. Thoughts circled my mind like buzzards: What if she never stops? What if I never see her again? What if she overdoses? Or goes to jail? I lured Allison into therapy by promising we’d go to an Italian restaurant before visits. Her first appointment day arrived. She played with her spaghetti, and I couldn’t eat. “So, what do you plan to say to the counselor?” I asked. “How should I know?” When they called her name at the office, I hurried in to make sure the counselor understood. Allison refused to sign for me to have any information. I considered eavesdropping, but too many people were around. An hour later, she walked past me as I paid. “What’d you talk about?” “Just stuff.” Our therapy/lunch charade continued that way for a few weeks. Then Allison’s sister informed me she was still using. She denied it, refused to see the counselor, dropped out of college, and stopped answering my calls. I was convinced if I forgot about Allison, even for a second, or enjoyed anything, something bad might happen. Several months later, after another night of little sleep, I glanced in the mirror. I could have passed for the addict: dark circles under hopeless eyes. I called my friend Linda. Her son, also an addict, had been sentenced to state prison. “You can’t imagine all that’s going on here,” I said. “Come over for coffee,” she urged. I wanted to stand guard at home but knew she’d listen and understand. “Hey, girlfriend.” Linda hugged me. I didn’t touch my coffee as I blurted the saga. Linda didn’t sweet-talk. “You need help.” “You haven’t heard the whole story,” I argued. “I’m fine–my daughter, she needs help.” “You’re addicted to worry and control,” Linda said. “I’ve been where you are.” She stretched out on the sofa. “The only one you can control is yourself.” The possibility that she might be right terrified me. “It took me years to realize that I’m not in charge. God is,” Linda admitted. “By worrying, you’re telling God he can’t handle things. Go to Al-Anon with me.” I’d heard of Al-Anon but didn’t see how it applied to me. But I agreed because I was in awe of Linda. I didn’t open my mouth during the meeting. Every word spoken sounded like my own thoughts: “I worried myself sick about my alcoholic husband.” “My peace comes only when I let go and let God.” Then the speaker said, “To change, you’ll have to leave behind some familiar lifelong habits.” But how? This is who I am–what I do. “An alcoholic can’t drink, and those of us in this room can’t allow an ounce of worry. For us, it’s every bit as dangerous and addictive. Worry robs our serenity.” I didn’t think change was possible. Not for me. But I knew one thing for sure–I was destroying my life. That night at home I got real. “Help me, God. I can’t do this without you.” I began to ask God for help each morning. I whispered, “Not my job,” as worry, fear, or control tried to needle back in. Two years after that first Al-Anon meeting, Allison and I met for an impromptu lunch. She’d gone back to the same therapist. On her own. “You can’t imagine how easy it is to study when you’re not high,” she laughed. “Nope, I guess not.” I blinked back happy tears. “Thanks, Mom.” “For what?” “When you didn’t fix my problems, it scared me. A few times I had to dig change out of the seat of my car for gas money. Some days,” she paused, “I didn’t have food.” My throat felt warm with pride. She’d done it on her own. “I’m making A’s. And look,” she handed me her checkbook. “I have money again.” Recovery defies logic. It means doing the opposite of what feels natural. When I took care of myself and my addictions, Allison did the same.” Citation: Condensed from our sister publication Today’s Christian,© 2008 Christianity Today International Julie W., “Not My Job,” Today’s Christian (July/August 2008)

Here is the bottom line of this lesson: we live in a fallen world, and the influence of the enemy is all over the place – but God is at work. He is not at work only in the GOOD THINGS of life – God is at work everywhere. The question isn’t: “How do I get out of the pain and trouble?” as much as it is: “God, how can you use me in the pain and trouble? What do I need to learn from you today?”

Lesson Six: All the preparation and talent in the world isn’t enough to fulfill your mission – because God’s power is vested in God’s Spirit (Acts 9:17).

Saul was incredibly gifted, and excelled early in life. He needed the lesson of the next two verses…

Acts 9:17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.“

Saul needed God’s Spirit more than he needed the restoration of his physical eyesight. God was about to give him both – but the Spirit became the secret to really being able to see. God wanted Saul to see as few others could. He wanted him to evaluate things in a spiritual way. He wanted him to recognize the truth articulated well by C.S. Lewis: “You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body!” No believer is truly mature until they see the physical world as many times smaller than the spiritual world that entirely engulfs the cosmos.

“In January, 1995, according to an article written by Gary Thomas, J. Robert Ashcroft had fewer than forty-eight hours to live, but he was holding on to life, hoping to see his son, John Ashcroft, sworn into the U.S. Senate the following day. [John Ashcroft, as we all know by now, is in the process of being confirmed as our next Attorney General]. As family and friends gathered in Washington for a small reception, J. Robert Ashcroft asked his son to play the piano while everyone sang, ‘We Are Standing On Holy Ground.’” “After the song, the frail old man spoke some powerful words: ‘John, I want you to know that even Washington can be holy ground. Wherever you hear the voice of God, that ground is sanctified. It’s a place where God can call you to the highest and best.’” “Wherever we are in our vocation, if Jesus is Lord of our lives, that place is a holy place of service for Him” (Thomas, “Working for All It’s Worth,” Moody, July/August 1998, p. 13, as quoted in Morgan, p. 796).

There was a man who knew that WHERE was not the question – but IN WHOSE POWER was the ultimate query. Work done by the talented will wash quickly away. Work done by the Spirit of God cannot be undone by mere mortals.

Lesson Seven: Though conversion is a spiritual act, not everything about you is spiritual – because God works through the frailty of earthen vessels (Acts 9:18).

One final lesson from our text…

Acts 9:18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; 19 and he took food and was strengthened.

Here is the great truth that we are but men and women. We who know God and proclaim His love, do so in earthen vessels… in cracked pots. Our bodies are not indestructible, and they need tending. We need not baby them – they also need discipline. I am heartened by this story:

One of God’s faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, “While God gives me strength, failure will not deter me.” In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.” Allen Gardiner. (from sermon central).

Allen didn’t LOSE to a broken body, he WON to a good God. He was called home after doing all he could for Jesus. Like Epaphroditus of old, he was sick from his call – and gave all he could.

At the same time, Saul was needed for the long haul, and had to learn to eat right, hydrate well, and rest when the time was given by God. He couldn’t be DRIVEN by ministry, he needed to be DIRECTED by Jesus. Elijah learned that long before… A walk with God may need more prayer time, or it may be time to take a day and rest before God. We need to learn to pace ourselves in our ministries…These were some beginning lessons that helped flavor Saul’s expectations and temper his steps… and they should ours as well.

Some of the initial lessons of faith are the hardest simply because they set the expectation for the rest of our time of service to the King.

Following His Footsteps: “Changed by the Pain”- Luke 1

Pain changes you. I was speaking the other day to a friend who has been caring for his wife through a recent cancer surgery. He was encouraged at her progress, and she is doing well. As he spoke, he reminded me that this was her third cancer surgery – and that she had learned some important things that she passed to her husband. She called cancer “the great clarifier”. When the treatments were a memory and the pain had mostly passed – she was able to see her life more clearly than she ever could before. It was the trouble of her life, the threat to its continuance here on earth that gave her a different perspective. She was changed by the pain. She was transformed by the threat, the discouragement, the questions toward God and the world – and she emerged a different woman.

I am glad that I had that simple encounter the other day, because her simple lesson encouraged me to think about life in deeper terms. In the business of the daily, the broader picture of things can be obscured. Thank God He places people in our lives to cause us to pick up our heads from the task before us, and think about the distant horizon and where we are going.

As I work with believers of all ages, I think I begin to recognize some of the wisdom of God in placing us together in the local body of believers. Some among us have passed through enormous pain – the loss of a dream, the loss of the love of our lives, the loss of our health and physical stability. Sitting beside them at any given meeting are others who believe deeply, but have experienced little. They are not to be belittled, for their zeal and their energy are essential to the progress of God’s church – but they really don’t have that much experience, thankfully, with deep pain and disappointment.

Tucked between the two groups are “game changers”. These are people that have both experienced the pain, and kept the optimism and belief. They are the un-jaded sufferers among us that help all of us keep things together. They know what it is like to be discouraged – they have visited that address, but they have refused to move in and live there. They have felt the searing pain that comes with living in a fallen world, but they have found God’s balm of healing, and have moved on. They are the heroes and heroines of our story – and they have found a voice in Luke’s recorded story of Elizabeth. Here is the lesson…

Younger and older believers need each other. Some of the most learned believers are in the process of growing past their troubles while some of the most uninitiated can profoundly speak – but they haven’t been tempered by the troubles ahead.

Key Principle: God uses the one who has been changed by the pain to teach others to move ahead with Him.

For the Bible students among us, I would like to take a moment and see if I can make clear how I came to the conclusion that this was the key truth at the heart of Luke 1. If you read through the entire chapter, you will notice if falls into three “natural” parts:

• The story opened with the angel Gabriel foretelling of a son to a Senior Priest named Zecharias at the Temple. He was accomplished in ministry, but operating with a whole in his heart when it came to vibrant faith. (Luke 1:5-25). In a sense, Zecharias was jaded by the long trail of troubles unanswered in his life and he silently returned home to the encouragement of his loving wife at the end of the segment of the chapter given to his announcement.

• Luke recorded yet another story of a similar announcement – a message of an exciting coming birth. The angelic announcer was the same. The conditions were the same – she was working on her daily tasks with no thought of anticipation. The key difference was the attitude and experience of the hearer. (Luke 1:26-39) Mary was tender of heart, but also very young and lacking the experiences of pain. Her scene ended with a trip to the very same encouraging woman Zecharias went home to live with.

• Both scenes have their representative song – an anthem about God and His fulfillment of promises. Mary’s song flowed from her heart went Elizabeth encouraged her firm belief (Luke 1:46-46). Zecharias’ song took longer, because it came from beneath scars of trouble, and didn’t come until his faith was fully restored (Luke 1:57-80).

When you look at the whole of the chapter, you quickly note some similarities in two stories of the same chapter:

1. Two people who knew and served God were living their lives and doing their daily duties.
2. Both received an astounding visitor from Heaven that came to give them exciting news.
3. Both got a promise of an addition to their family.
4. Both were promised that the coming child would change the world.
5. Both got a prophetic song that was so important, it was included in the Scripture.
6. Both got their encouragement from the same lady (Elizabeth) – an experienced woman who both loved God, and knew pain.

At the same time, you cannot read this chapter and not notice some startling differences in the two people who encountered God’s messenger:

1. One went through years of pain and doubt before the message, and couldn’t just accept it when it came; he demanded proof, and needed time to be encouraged to see things differently.

2. The other spoke joyously of the promise, but didn’t yet know how difficult it was going to be to live through the pain of that promise. She had no clue what the snickers at the well of town would feel like, or how hard it would be to tell her fiancé of the promise.
The most exciting person in the narrative wasn’t the angel that encountered both people – it was Elizabeth. She encountered both of them, knew them both very well, and had passed through the pain in a way that would help both of them gain a proper footing to be used mightily by God. God uses the one who has been changed by the pain to teach both.

With that overview in mind, let’s take a few minutes in this lesson and look at each of the three sections of the story, and see if we can recognize what Elizabeth took away from her pain that can help all of us:

Zacharias and the Problem of Jaded Faith (Luke 1:5-25)

You don’t have to be walking in rebellion to have a faith “cooled” by the pain of disappointment. Look at the way Zach is introduced…

Luke 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

How do I know they weren’t perfectly happy then? Because the rest of the story makes clear that their home was filled with a hole – a pain that bothered both Zach and Liz…

Luke 1:7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years…24 After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, 25 “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked [with favor] upon [me], to take away my disgrace among men.”

The text reminds that Liz felt “disgrace” over being barren. The term “óneidos” means “defamed, reproached, censured, and even blamed”. Don’t you wonder what was behind that loaded word? In any case, “disgrace” is not a term you use for a happy feeling in an idyllic home. Liz was an embarrassed wife, and she was married to a disappointed husband. Her aging priestly husband prayed and prayed that God would give them a son – but God didn’t answer the way Zach wanted Him to respond. Zach wanted a baby – and so did God… but God’s plan was much bigger. It always is when God says “No!”

God never refuses to give you what you want because He is mean or doesn’t love you. He only refuses to give you what you want if it is too small for His plan for you. God wanted a “miracle baby” that would profoundly change the people’s hearts – beginning with the heart of his dad. Zach just wanted to feel normal. His request was far too small for God’s big plan.

Enter providence – the word that has been replaced in a pagan culture by “coincidence”… God was about to put “points on the score board”:

Luke 1:8 Now it happened [that] while he was performing his priestly service before God in the [appointed] order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. 11 And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

The priestly job given to Zach was to represent the prayers of the people of God in the Temple. All Jerusalem awaited on the time of the incense to loft their prayers up to God. Ironically, the guy who felt the worst about prayer was given the task of representing the prayers of all. God not only noticed… He pre-planned the whole event to get Gabriel the angel into the room, and make clear what the next part of the plan would be for Zach and his wife… and the whole of the nation!

Gabriel related in Luke 1:12-17 that Zacharias’ wife would have a baby, that it would be a boy, and that Zach was to name the child “Yochanon”: (The Lord has been gracious). That baby was going to grow up, be used by God’s Spirit, and challenge the whole nation of Israel. He would come in the place and power of Elijah in announcing Messiah… This boy was going to be like a prophet of old….How exciting! Yet, the next words out of the mouth of the old priest showed like a clean window the jaded color of his heart… He asked for proof…

Luke 1:18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this [for certain]? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

Look carefully at what Zach said. Had they “thought” on a few occasions that Liz was pregnant, only to have that hope crushed? Besides, Zach was no fool. He knew his own age, and he knew his wife’s potential for having a child had long left… He knew what we all know when God wants to do something incredible….”WE CAN’T!”

We can’t make life from old bones. We can’t fight physics, aging or science. We are stuck with what is… unless God wants to re-write the script. What we forget is that God is not bound to the rules of the world – He is the Ruler of it all!

Stunned, Gabriel didn’t get it. Angels don’t really always know what to make of men. He came from Heaven, and brought his message… end of story. What kind of being doesn’t get that God can do whatever suits His plan? In two words, jaded believers. When you have asked and asked – and hurted with each rejection – you start to think God isn’t looking out for you at all. In those dark hours, it never occurs to you that God is the one that put you where you are, because He has a plan at work.

Luke 1:19 The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 “And behold, you shall be silent … 23 When the days of his priestly service were ended, he went back home.

The believer who cannot believe God needs to keep his mouth shut. He isn’t going to be obedient in proclamation, nor encouraging in delivery. He is going to whine and doubt – and that helps no one. God made it clear to everyone that He was at work – that God had spoken… and then God took Zach’s voice for a time – to get the point across to HIM before God used him to get it to anyone else. Zach wanted proof – and he got it. He was mute. Everyday he couldn’t speak he would recall that meeting with Gabriel wasn’t an apparition – it was an event. Then his mind would recall the message of that meeting. God was about to do something…

What I find interesting is that he went home to an encouraging, believing wife. She KNEW God was going to remove her disgrace long before her belly swelled. She heard and believed, anticipated and celebrated. He was quiet because the jaded heart was being recolored by a miraculous God.

Mary and Naïve Faith (Luke 1:26-56)

Move to the other main story of Luke 1 – that of the familiar meeting in Nazareth between Mary and Gabriel. The time for this lesson is tight, and the story familiar, so let us look at the high points to grab the main truth of this incredibly rich and cosmos changing event. The story can be broken into three parts:

• Gabriel’s announcement to Mary (Luke 1:26-38);
• Mary’s encouraging visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45);
• Mary’s song of celebration called the “Magnificat” (Luke 1:46-56).

In the meeting story of Luke 1:26-38, we are dropped into the scene as Mary encounters the angelic messenger…

Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord [is] with you.”

Beyond the startled nature of the appearance, Gabriel explained that God was going to fill the womb of Mary with the One that was long promised. Messiah was to be born in her, as God had promised through prophetic voices of the Hebrew Scriptures…Look at Mary’s response:

Luke 1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary offered no doubt that God COULD do these things, only that she didn’t understand the mechanics. Was she being told to DO something? Gabriel was clear – she needn’t worry about the conception – God was handling that issue. She offered consent beautifully.

Now wait… this begins to sound like Zach was the old crusty and jaded priest, and Mary was the pure-minded, always obedient servant. That’s fine. It fits the flannel graph and matches the history of church art. Mary the pure, Zach the deficient…but is that REALLY FAIR?

Is it fair to say that Mary had not lived with snickers at the well like Elizabeth did? Is it fair to say that Zach had much more experience in trying to be encouraging to a humiliated life partner than Mary ever could have understood? My point is this: Mary quickly embraced God’s vision for her – but was far too naïve to really understand what pain she was buying into. Zach may have hesitated much more, but he had much more history behind him. Let’s not be so hasty to paint perfectly adorned togas on the good guys in the Biblical story. The jaded had the pains that left the cloudy marks on their heart.

Stop for a moment, and go to the pivotal character of the whole story – the woman that suffered pains but clung to her faith…

Elizabeth and Firm Faith (Luke 1:25,39-42)

Follow Mary to the meeting with Auntie Liz…

Luke 1:39 Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed [are] you among women, and blessed [is] the fruit of your womb!

Listen to the sound of encouraging words that came from her mouth. Elizabeth was EXPERIENCING God’s interruption of grace in “real time”, when Mary stepped through the door. Before the Magnificat was sung, the senior believer, scarred with years of disgrace, was singing the celebration of a GOOD GOD!

Freeze the scene and remember what Elizabeth went through to get to that place in her heart.

1. Neighbor after neighbor celebrated their pregnancies with gifts from Elizabeth’s hands – but there was never any such celebration in Zach and Liz’s home.

2. Morning after morning Liz made her way with the other women to get water from the nearby spring for their daily needs. All the while as the women walked they talked, “How little Eli is growing” and “What to do about Miriam’s bed wetting”. Liz kept silent, and held back tears because God evidently didn’t think she needed… or worse… deserved children. The water she brought back in her pot was nothing compared to the tears that stained her face when she finally got back inside.

3. Month after month she begged God for a baby, but with each month’s passing, she felt both more helpless and more forgotten. Was Zacharias angry with her? Even if he didn’t SEEM like it, did he hold HER to blame inside?

Look at the way she handled the news that God heard her prayer:

Luke 1:24 After these days Elizabeth his wife became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, 25 “This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked [with favor] upon [me], to take away my disgrace among men.” Later, when Mary came, you hear her voice again…43 “And how has it [happened] to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 “And blessed [is] she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”

Here is the Elizabeth picture sketched out:

• She knew pain, but still believed God was good, and would deal with her in grace.
• She knew the impossible was made possible when God decided to touch her body.
• She knew it wasn’t coincidence, because she took seriously the Word of God and the prophetic promises God made.
• She encouraged belief in Mary.
• She trusted that God was good, and that her rescue was because of His goodness.
• She refused to let the pain determine her view of God.

Let me ask you something…”Who are you most like in the story of Luke 1?” Are you working for God but deeply jaded because He isn’t doing things the way you want them to play out in your life? Are you anticipating great things, and just “don’t get” why some of those who have known God for a long time aren’t more enthusiastic and excited about what the Master is doing right now? Could it be that you may even be the one who has been tempered by God in trouble, and right now God is nudging you to get busy helping those around you see God’s faithfulness in spite of troubles.

Not everyone knows how to face pain and trouble – but God made some of us to help others figure it out…

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth the effort to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey seemed to realize what was happening and cried horribly. Then to everyone’s amazement, the beast quieted down. A few shovel loads later the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing! He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off….There are a number of ways we can handle pain and trouble. It is easy to get discouraged and give up, or get angry and blow up, but if we really believe that God is in control, then we will look for a way to build our trust in Him to help us get through it His way.

Recognizing the True Hero

It is worth remembering that God’s deepest work can be done by the one who has the scar-riddled body, when that one refuses to allow scars to be torn open and become scabs. The hero among us isn’t the polished angelic messenger, nor the weathered and experienced believer – but the Faithful God each of the others represent before a lost world. He is the One guiding all of us through the journey. He has a purpose for every pain in the story He is telling – and we must trust Him through each hurt. He also has a place for the wounded – as comforted testimonies for those who come behind them. God uses the one who has been changed by the pain – provided that change has led the wounded into His arms. The story of the Bible isn’t about people who “figured life out” and “did the right thing”. The story of the Bible is about a God who wouldn’t leave broken people in the dark – and how He grabbed and holds them tightly.