Tuesday, Feb. 10

Monday

Acts 10-11 essentially tells the same story twice.  It is the story of how God used a vision in a dream and a unique encounter with a Gentile named Cornelius, to change the mind and heart of the apostle Peter.  Then God used Peter to challenge the prejudices of the whole church so that the gospel might continue to spread throughout the world.  Repetition is a method that the Biblical writers used to emphasize crucial points, we should always pay careful attention when we see something repeated in the Bible.  There is a reason this story is repeated, it is a crucial moment in the history of the church!  

This story about Cornelius and Peter has a lot to say about the winds of racism that are blowing in our culture these days. They have a lot to say about our natural tendency to think of other ethnic groups besides our own as unclean or corrupt. They have a lot to say about world missions and our commitment as evangelical Christians to take the gospel of Christ to every ethnic group in the world so that people may be saved. So I hope we can be open to grasp the powerful truth of this story for our lives.

Look at Acts 10:28 - Peter is explaining to the Gentiles why he was willing to come and says, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean."

What this means is that Christians should never look down on a person from any race or ethnic group and say: they are unfit to hear the gospel from me. Or they are too unclean for me to go into their house to share the gospel. Or they are not worth evangelizing. Or they have too many offensive habits to even get near them.

But the phrase that makes verse 28 so powerful is the phrase "any man" or "any one": "God has shown me that I should not call any human being common or unclean." In other words, Peter learned from his vision on the housetop in Joppa that God rules no one out of his favor on the basis of race or ethnic origin or mere cultural distinctives or physical distinctives. "Common and unclean" meant rejected, despised, taboo. It was like leprosy.

And Peter's point here in verse 28 is that there is not one human being on the face of the earth that we should think about in that way. Not one. That's the amazing thing in this verse. Not one. Our hearts should go out to every single person whatever the color, whatever the ethnic origin, whatever the physical traits, whatever the cultural distinctives. Don't write off anybody. Don't snub anybody. Don't check them out like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan and then pass by on the other side. "God has shown me that I should not call any one—not one—common or unclean."

Cornelius would not have been saved if no one had taken him the gospel. And no one will be saved today without the gospel. We should be full of hope and expectancy that this is the sort of wonder God is willing to work in making connections between the groping of unreached peoples and those willing to take the gospel to them.

So let us rid our minds and our hearts of all racial slurs and ethnic put-downs and be done with all alienating behaviors. And let's be Christ for some ethnic outcast, or for some untouchable leper, and let's be the Peter for some waiting Cornelius!

Jeff Frazier

Monday Feb. 9th

In my work as a pastor I frequently meet with couples that are having marriage problems.  I recall meeting with one young man who was newly married and was particularly frustrated with the way things were going in the relationship with his wife.  He said to me, “I just don’t believe that marriage should be this hard.”  I was surprised by his comment and I asked him where he got the idea that marriage was supposed to be easy?  As we talked, it became increasingly apparent that the primary issue he had to deal with in his marriage was his own false expectations and wrong-headed ideas about how things were supposed to be.

When it comes to our relationship with God, we all have some false expectations and some wrong-headed ideas about what God is like and how He should do things.  We can’t help this really, and a big part of what it means to grow in our knowledge of God is letting go of our wrong thinking about God.

Colossians 1:9-10 - We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

This principle is present not just in our individual ideas about God, but it is especially true when it comes to how we view the church, and the people of God.  We might not say it out loud, but we all are prone to think that the church is for folks just like us.  There is even a principle espoused by the Church Growth movement, “the homogeneous unit” principle. It states that people are attracted to churches that have “their kind of people,” and advocates that we should be targeting a certain segment of the society. So you have churches that state that their target is to reach the Baby Boomers, or the Generation Xers. They aim their whole church service to make these kinds of people feel comfortable.  The New Testament and the book of Acts is clear that the church is God’s adopted family, made up of children from every conceivable background, to His glory!

The story of Peter & Cornelius in Acts 10 is all about how God radically changes the thinking of Peter.  The story in Acts 11 is all about how God uses the events of Acts 10 and the testimony of Peter to radically change the thinking of the whole church!  

Acts 11:15-18  - As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”  

The Gospel changes our wrong thinking, because our wrong thinking can get in the way of what God wants to do.  Did you catch what Peter said in vs. 17?  He said, “who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”  This means that before God opened his eyes to his own prejudice and blindness, he was actually standing in God’s way without even knowing it!  This is Peter!  He is an apostle, he walked with Jesus, if he can have blind spots, then we are truly blind indeed if we think we don’t have some too.  I shudder to think that this might be true about me, about us.  I don’t want my blindness or my hidden prejudices to ever stand in the way of what God might want to do through me!  

Jeff Frazier

Friday, February 6th

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Friday, Feb. 6

Acts 12:24-25

But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

We now live in the age of the internet, social media and the phenomenon of the so-called “viral video.” Someone uses their cell phone to video-record their dog eating an ice cream cone or their baby doing something cute and posts it on Facebook or Twitter and within 24 hours it has been viewed by a million people.

If I see something funny or interesting on the internet and want to share it with one of my boys, chances are that by the time I show it to them they’ve already seen it and passed it on to several hundred of their electronic friends.

We live in the viral age of information; images and words can be spread at the speed of light and reach more people more quickly than ever before in human history. The technology that makes all this possible has created something of a “Pandora’s box” in that the power of instant communication can be used for good, for bad and for the completely frivolous.

Here’s a small example of the good!

A couple of weeks ago we shared a Gospel Story video in all our weekend worship services. It told the story of Matt Caterer, who had a successful music career with a punk rock band before realizing the spiritual emptiness at the core of his life. He shared how a series of events eventually led him into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s a great story!

After we showed it in our weekend services we then posted the video on our social media sites, including Facebook, YouTube, and twitter.  In two days the video reached well over 6,000 people and is still being shared and viewed. 

The Book of Acts is all about the spread of the gospel. We see the gospel spread through preaching and teaching; we see it spread through miracles and healing; we see it spread through personal encounters; we see it spread through persecution and suffering; we even see it spread through the martyrdom of men like Stephen and James.

In that sense, the gospel has always been “viral,” that is, it is the very nature of the gospel to spread. It spreads from person to person, from people group to people group, from culture to culture, by any means available and by any means necessary.

The gospel, therefore, is unstoppable. It leaps across boundaries. It cannot be contained by social, cultural, political, economic or religious barriers. It cannot be stopped by persecution, by suffering, by evil or even by death itself.

Chances are you are reading or listening to this because you have already “caught” the gospel virus; if so, are you willing to pass it on to someone else?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Thursday, February 5th

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Thursday, Feb. 5

Acts12:18-23

Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death.
Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

In 1966, just as the rock-n-roll band and cultural phenomenon called “The Beatles” were reaching the peak of their popularity, John Lennon was quoted as saying:

“Christianity will go; it will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now.”

His remarks created an uproar in large portions of the U.S., particularly in the southern Bible belt, and although he later tried to soften his statement by claiming he only meant that the young people of England treated the band as if they were more important than Jesus, his remarks are still remembered as almost incredibly arrogant and self-serving.

John Lennon had nothing on Herod.

First, Herod is so enraged that Peter has escaped his prison and ruined his fun that he has the guards summarily executed. Then Luke tells us that Herod has evidently been denying food to the regions of Tyre and Sidon because he is angry with them about something. They send representatives to seek the favor of the king.

We read:

On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!"

One pictures Herod entering the room with great pomp and circumstance; allowing his groveling guests to bask in his kingly greatness. Then he pontificates about whatever it is kings pontificate about all the while imagining himself to be the finest orator the world has ever known. His guests fall all over themselves praising his magnificence because they are desperate and willing to do anything that might help their cause.

So they praise him as a “god.” Then Herod makes his biggest mistake; he allows them to do so without redirecting their praise to the true God.

Here’s what happens next:

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

The Jewish historian Josephus confirms the basic outline of this story, attributing Herod’s death to “A severe pain (that) arose in his belly, striking with a most violent intensity.”

The point is that even though Herod possessed the political position and power to inflict suffering and death on those he ruled, he was not God. Just as Peter’s escape let the believers know that God had not abandoned them, so Herod’s death was a reminder that God is sovereign and will one day judge all evil.

A few years later the Apostle Paul would write:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 
(Galatians 6:7)

In other words, a man can pretend for a while that he is God; for a time it can certainly seem like evil will go unpunished; but, make no mistake, God is God and will one day judge both the living and the dead.

Pastor Brian Coffey
 

Wednesday, February 4th

To listen to the audio version, click here.

Wednesday, Feb. 4

Acts 12:1-17

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.  And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind." But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, "It is his angel!" But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Tell these things to James and to the brothers." Then he departed and went to another place.

A number of years ago my brother and his family surprised us at Christmastime by arriving at our house a day earlier than expected. The doorbell rang and we heard the sound of Christmas carolers on our porch so someone jumped up and ran to the front door. I can no longer remember who that was - but whoever did was so surprised that he or she failed to invite my brother and his family to come in; just left them on the porch singing and rand into the house to tell the rest of us about our surprise carolers.

That’s kind of what happens here. A whole group of believers are gathered to pray for Peter, who they know is in prison and facing a fate similar to that of James.

There is a knock on the door and they send the servant girl, named Rhoda, to answer. Evidently she asks the visitor to identify himself, and recognizing Peter’s voice she is so excited she leaves him on the street and runs to tell the others.

This is one of those small, unnecessary details that point to the authenticity of the New Testament record. Why would someone think to put an insignificant servant girl in the story by name if that’s not the way things actually happened?

I also can’t help but notice the humanity of the early believers. Here they are in a prayer meeting; almost certainly pleading with God for the release and protection of their friend Peter; and when he actually shows up and knocks on the door they don’t believe it.

Have you ever prayed for something you don’t really believe God can do? I think most of us have.

Sometimes we struggle to see what God is doing even when he’s doing it right in front of our noses.

But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Tell these things to James and to the brothers." Then he departed and went to another place.

Yesterday we wrestled with the question of why evil and suffering are in the world. We questioned why God would allow James to be executed but sent an angel to rescue Peter?

While we struggle to trust God’s sovereignty in the martyrdom of James, we can see a bit more clearly his purposes in Peter’s miraculous deliverance.

Peter’s knocking on the door during the prayer meeting had to have a powerful impact on that small group of believers. It was God’s way of showing them that their prayers mattered; that he had not abandoned them; that although evil men like Herod seem to rule the world he is still God and is sovereign over all things.

Peter’s escape means that even though James has been taken from them, their faith is not in vain and the gospel has not been defeated.

I wonder where in your life you need to be reminded that your prayers matter? Where in your life do you need to be reminded that the gospel has not been defeated?

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, February 3rd

To listen to the audio version, click here.

Tuesday, Feb. 3

Acts 12:1-11

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."

I lead a men’s ministry called TEAM that meets at 6 AM every Friday morning from September through March. So I   set my alarm for 4:15 AM on Friday mornings. In the 16 years I have been leading the TEAM ministry my alarm has only gone off three times, because I almost always wake up on my own at about 4 AM.

This past week I had to be out late on a Thursday night because my son had a high school basketball game and I got to bed somewhat later than usual. When my alarm went off at 4:15 AM I was in the middle of some kind of dream and was totally disoriented. I fumbled around in a fog trying to figure out where all the noise was coming from; and when I figured out it was my alarm going off I thought it was Saturday and I had just forgotten to turn my alarm off on Friday. Within a few seconds I came to my senses, realized it was Friday morning and I had slept longer than usual and my alarm had gone off for the third time in 16 years.

Have you ever woken up from a vivid dream and been a little unsure as to whether you were actually awake yet or still in the dream?

Most of us have had that experience and Luke tells us that Peter has that kind of experience as he sleeps in a dark prison cell.

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

This part of the story is both miraculous and somewhat humorous. Peter is in prison, bound with chains, and sleeping between two armed guards yet he is sleeping so soundly that the angel of the Lord has to smack him to wake him up! Even then Peter thinks he must still be dreaming.

Putting the humor aside the question that occurs to us is, why does God send an angel to rescue Peter yet allow James to be executed by Herod?

That’s a very disturbing and difficult question.

A few years ago my father had a very serious stroke. At first the doctors told us the damage to his brain was so great that there was “zero chance of meaningful recovery.” We were prepared to let him go. Then a second neurosurgeon looked at his MRI and determined that since the bleed was on the exterior of the brain that the damage could be reversed with a particular medical procedure. We authorized that procedure and my father eventually recovered completely. Within a month or so a woman came to me for prayer after one of our worship services. She said her father had a very similar stroke at about the same time as my Dad, but that her father had never recovered consciousness and had passed away.

She wasn’t asking me for an explanation, but, if she had, I wouldn’t have been able to offer anything even close to satisfactory.

The simple answer to the “why” question is, “We don’t know.”

Add yet we do know that God is good.

We know that God is sovereign.

We know that there is evil in the world because Satan is trying to destroy everything that God made.

We know that awful things happen to very good people.

We know that God promises to redeem our suffering into his good.

But from our human perspective we don’t always know why the bad things happen; and we can’t always see the good that God is going to do.

Romans 8:18-28 (selected)

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us...  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans... And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

We suffer because sin, death and evil are in the world.

We hope because we have been saved.

We wait for that hope.

And, sometimes, we pray with wordless groans...

Pastor Brian Coffey

Monday, February 2nd

To listen to the audio version, click here.

Monday, Feb. 2

Acts 12:1-25

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Dress yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 

When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind." But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, "It is his angel!" But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Tell these things to James and to the brothers." Then he departed and went to another place. Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

But the word of God increased and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.

Sometimes it seems like there is just no end to the bad news. I picked up my local paper this morning and saw the following headlines:

“Scores dead in Nigerian city”

“Bomb threats in Atlanta”

“Japan stunned by video claiming hostage death”

“Man shot while walking along street in Elgin”

There was even a headline that said, “The astroid is coming.”

And, of course, we can’t forget the national crisis of deflated footballs!

The story we read today from Acts 12 begins with terrible news.

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword...

Scholars believe that it is most likely that Luke is telling his readers that James has been beheaded at the order of Herod the king.

This Herod is Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great who was king when Jesus was born and who ordered the infamous “slaughter of the innocents” (Matthew 2); which was the murder of all the male infants in the region after he was fooled by the Magi who had come to worship the child Jesus.

Herod was brought up in Rome and was an associate of the emperor Caligula, one of the most violent and power thirsty dictators in human history.

So Herod was a man concerned primarily with his own power and therefore saw people as a means to either demonstrate his power or to magnify his position.

Herod was also an evil man.

James, the man Herod has executed, was the brother of John, who later wrote the gospel that bears his name. James and John were the sons Zebedee and were fishermen called by Jesus to be his disciples. Scripture indicates that Jesus gave them the nickname “sons of thunder,” perhaps (and this is just a guess) because they were strong personalities or were bold and rambunctious men.

Luke doesn’t tell us why Herod has James beheaded; we can only guess that James was a recognizable leader of the new Christian movement and Herod figured that killing him would serve to enhance his brutal reputation.

You can almost hear the questions that those who knew and loved James might have been asking in their shock and grief.

“Why is this happening?”

“Why James?”

“Why does a good and Godly man lose his life at the whim of such an evil man?”

These are the questions that swirl within us on a daily basis.

One of those news stories I mentioned earlier was about atrocities being committed in Nigeria by a terrorist group called Boko Haram. Just two days ago the Islamic extremists slaughtered over 40 people in seven villages; bringing number of deaths to an estimated 10,000 and many more kidnapped and forced into slavery. A few months ago Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 young girls that have not been seen since.

Evil.

Why does such seemingly random and wanton evil exist?

That’s a difficult and important question; a question the entire Bible was written to answer. But here’s a brief summary:

God created all that is in love and freedom.

Satan, once an angel of light, became proud and rebelled against God and has set himself against God.

God created human beings in his own image and for eternal relationship with himself.

But human beings also rebelled against God and sinned against him and against each other.

The result was the fall of all creation into sin and death.

All of that happens in the first 3 chapters of the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The rest of the Bible is the story of how God is redeeming this broken world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Sin and evil are in the world because God created everything that is in love and freedom. That freedom was used for rebellion; sin and death followed.

The gospel is God’s remedy for our rebellion; for our sin; for evil in the world; and for death itself.

The Book of Acts teaches us that the gospel does not protect us from evil, rather, it enables us to triumph over evil through the redemptive work of Christ.

Pastor Brian Coffey