Wonderful study/discussion on Acts 13 last night. A few highlights...
The church in Antioch demonstrated 4 great attributes worth emulating (vv. 1-3)
1. plurality
2. diversity
3. sensitivity
4. generosity
Sensitivity to God's Spirit was the byproduct of a church devoted to worship and fasting. (Devotion came first, then the leading of the Spirit to an attuned people.)
Sensitivity to God's Spirit gave Paul boldness in his words.
9But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
In a joking fashion I was tempted to post these verses as my facebook status yesterday. Reality is there are some people who really need to hear them. But it is only the Holy Spirit that can give me that discernment and authority.
Paul spoke these words, because he had traveled this path.
Elymas was seeking to turn the proconsul from the truth. The very crime Paul had committed his life to before his Damascus Road encounter. Note, Elymas is given almost the identical encounter, but lacks the sensitivity to repent.
The opposite of sensitivity to the Spirit of God is found in v. 27.
27For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
Those who rejected Christ had heard the Word of God every week of their lives, but were never sensitive to it. How often does this happen in our congregations each week!
Proximity to the Gospel is never enough.
Finally, notice what happened between the Sabbaths.
The gospel is preached the first Sabbath and by the time the next Sabbath arrives, the entire city (v. 44) is in attendance. May the movement of God be so powerful in our churches this Sunday that we burst at the seems next Sunday!
Warning, with this movement came much opposition (vv. 45, 50).
But the gospel spread and "the disciples were filled with joy and the with the Holy Spirit."
The church in Antioch demonstrated 4 great attributes worth emulating (vv. 1-3)
1. plurality
2. diversity
3. sensitivity
4. generosity
Sensitivity to God's Spirit was the byproduct of a church devoted to worship and fasting. (Devotion came first, then the leading of the Spirit to an attuned people.)
Sensitivity to God's Spirit gave Paul boldness in his words.
9But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
In a joking fashion I was tempted to post these verses as my facebook status yesterday. Reality is there are some people who really need to hear them. But it is only the Holy Spirit that can give me that discernment and authority.
Paul spoke these words, because he had traveled this path.
Elymas was seeking to turn the proconsul from the truth. The very crime Paul had committed his life to before his Damascus Road encounter. Note, Elymas is given almost the identical encounter, but lacks the sensitivity to repent.
The opposite of sensitivity to the Spirit of God is found in v. 27.
27For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
Those who rejected Christ had heard the Word of God every week of their lives, but were never sensitive to it. How often does this happen in our congregations each week!
Proximity to the Gospel is never enough.
Finally, notice what happened between the Sabbaths.
The gospel is preached the first Sabbath and by the time the next Sabbath arrives, the entire city (v. 44) is in attendance. May the movement of God be so powerful in our churches this Sunday that we burst at the seems next Sunday!
Warning, with this movement came much opposition (vv. 45, 50).
But the gospel spread and "the disciples were filled with joy and the with the Holy Spirit."
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