Acts, Chapter 11 - Pastor Gilman

 

     Well the Christmas season is here again as we remember the miracle birth of Christ and are ever thankful for it; but it is also a season of festivities of another kind as we celebrate the season with parties and dinners , with family and friends; exchanging gifts and remembering those who may have neglected along the way. Merry Christmas is on everyone’s lips these days. Schedules are rearranged, work is suspended and folks take vacation days to do it all…

We will do the same this year with our bible study meetings. Everyone is busy doing extra this time of year.. It is a time when everyday counts and time itself we are often short of. So unless there are major objections, today will be our last meeting of the year and we will resume on our communion Sunday after the new year.. I believe that will be January 2nd at our same time… Our bible study will still be open, our prayer group hopefully will be more active than ever and Shield of Hope messenger in addition to our group page and website will remain usable and functional…I am confidant that the Children’s Feeding Program will be in full swing as well… I will post bible study material periodically over this time and you can find it all on our website to read over at your leisure, as usual.. Some folks might say.. Well the Lord comes before shopping and dinners or anything else and to those folks I say yes whole heartedly… I am confident that each of you , as you embrace this holiday will do so while carrying the light of Jesus for family, friends and even strangers to see.. I will be available throughout our little break by messenger or email anytime…

Now we have studied Matthew, Mark, Luke and now and part of John…Why is John so important? Simply put The purpose of this gospel, as stated by John himself, is to show that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, the Son of God, and that believers in him might have eternal life…. This was John’s purpose.. We all are now pretty familiar with the journey of Christ to the cross at this point..

Now I think its time to proceed to the book Acts, knowing that we may well be referencing John for a long while to come.. The book of Acts is an important book for understanding the actions of the apostles, mostly Paul and Peter, after Jesus's ascension into Heaven. It is an important book in understanding how we can be directed by the Holy Spirit and the role of Jesus' lessons in our lives. It is a study to truly look forward to so when we return from our break we will begin with the book of Acts…

Now this morning I want to talk a bit about a more gruesome subject.. “Death”. Our feelings and fears around death and ton the other side of the coin the resurrection…. The Bible speaks of death as the last enemy to be defeated. Defeated one might ask.. How so as it is an enviable outcome of Life..

Lets pray….

Dear Lord,

In the midst of the tribulations of life steady us as we go forward studying your Word , sharing with others the Joy and Miracle of serving you. We ask for strength in our bodies, soundness of mind and most of all spiritual wholeness… Help us today to find a crumb of divine guidance that we can take with us, that will help us and those we touch now and over time…

We ask these things in Jesus’ name..

Amen

Let refer to:

John 5:28-29, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."

The resurrection - I don't know of any theme in the Bible that I find more beautiful or more inspiring. I am always glad when a verse appeals to me in such a way that it makes the resurrection seem more real. It is possible to believe in something and yet that thing not seem very important to you, because it doesn't seem real and that is true with respect to the resurrection. It seems like something far away. Mysterious and unreal, and we avoid thinking about it. I am always glad when something brings it to me and makes it stand out.

The resurrection was very real to the apostles in the early chapters of the book of Acts, because they had witnessed Jesus in His resurrection body, "by many infallible proofs" moving among them, meeting with them. His resurrection was so real and very important to them, because they had seen Jesus in His resurrection body. Over and over again, the apostles referred to the resurrection. It gave a tremendous witness and power to their message as the ministered for Christ.

I Peter 1:3, God has "begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Hope had been born again in their hearts by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, because they had passed through the very dark days when He was treated as a criminal, crucified, and put in the grave. If the resurrection could be anywhere near as real to us as it was to them, it would give us a living hope.

There are plenty of people in the world who have hope, vague dreams and wistful wishes but it is a dead or artificial hope. When we have a clear picture of the resurrection, it will give us a living hope. Artificial things can be made to look very real. There are religious people who have a hope that seems almost real. Something that is artificial may look real, but it will gradually deteriorate and lose its beauty, and eventually it will become evident that this is not a living hope. Christ testified to this..

My parents have an artificial tree inside their house; an artificial tree - it won't grow. Artificial hope won't grow either. True hope is a hope that will grow. Something that is living, it will heal itself. We want to have hope living in our hearts. If you have a tree living in your house and if a limb gets crushed, it will heal itself. An artificial tree can't heal itself..

Living things also produce seeds. Living hope will produce seeds that can be planted in the heart of another person - seed-thoughts in the hearts of other people that would produce hope in their hearts too. If you want to make the resurrection real to you, read all you can about the resurrection. Why is it very important to make the resurrection seem real? If we have a real vision of the resurrection it will affect our lives, our choices, our steps. Many experiences in life seem very different if you can approach them with the thought of the resurrection in mind.

Hebrews 11:17 tells of Abraham being asked to offer Isaac and verse 19 of him accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him - in a figure. That definitely gives the impression that when Abraham was facing that experience, Isaac being put to death, Isaac - from whom nations were to arise - to put him to death would seem to cut off all hope of that promise being fulfilled. He was looking at that experience from the standpoint of the resurrection.

It's good to evaluate our different experiences with respect to the resurrection. Very often, a person receives this message: you have a terminal illness. How would we cope with that in reality? Knowing that you have a terminal illness, if you could think of it in connection with the resurrection... There are people who live under very unhappy circumstances, heavy burdens of the soul to bear. I believe that when something overwhelms us - a lot of those things - if we could look at them with respect to the resurrection, it would completely change many things in life for us. Before we can do that, we have to have a certain feeling that the resurrection is real, not a far off, mysterious thing.

Acts 2:24, God raised Him up, "loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that He should holden of it." Death is like a fierce, cruel monster that reaches down with its ugly head and again and again, snatches life away. Man cannot resist that hand of death. Man could not do anything when death reached down, in its cruel way, and painfully took Jesus out of the world. God said, by the power of the resurrection - let Him go; that is quite a picture of death, the irresistible power of death. Man's wisdom cannot resist it, men in multitudes cannot resist it.

Sometime it comes very unexpectedly and takes away a victim, the cruel hand of death. Sometimes, it hovers and casts its shadow over many lives. A fine brother worker ( from my background we call ministers or pastors “Workers”.. He was 40 years old - became very ill a little over a year ago. He had an inoperable brain tumor. The shadow of that hand of death came over all that knew him and loved him. Everyone suffers because of it, because he has meant to them and to me.. The power of the resurrection just means that, when God says let them go... The hand of death will not be able to hold on to any of its victims. The power of the resurrection is greater than the hand of death. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life… Through Him we can overcome the hand of death..

Daniel 12:2-3, Psalm 17:15, and many of them shall awake. "I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." The resurrection is like waking up in the morning. Isn't it often referred to as the resurrection morn? If the resurrection is just like waking up, then couldn't you say that death is like falling asleep? That is often used in the Bible. Death is not a permanent thing, there will be waking up afterwards. When you are asleep you are removed from your activities, from your company. Death and sleeping both separate us from the things we have been doing and the things we love to do.

You know why it is so hard to get a child to go to bed at night? He knows he is going to miss something. Often you will tell a child there will be another day. I wonder if God wouldn't like to say that? It's just like going to sleep, there will be another day. Maybe we resist the thought of death, maybe the same way a child resists the thought of going to bed. That night of death is what must precede the resurrection morn. There is nothing so dreadful about spending a night asleep. There is going to be a morning afterwards. When we are asleep, we are not conscious of time and what happened in that time. The time from death until the resurrection morn will pass quickly, without the need of fretting and worrying about what is happening.

My grandparents heard this gospel in 1914, in New York. Many people heard this gospel then. Two years later, sister workers came. The older of the sisters had written several hymns. Years later when , I was visiting my home, coincidently, at the same time this sister was there. By this time, many of these people had gone on into eternity. I remember this distinctly because it was one of the few visits I’ve had since I relocated to the Philippines…One afternoon, she asked me to take her to several of the homes of these old timers and their children, that she remembered. After we had gone to all the homes we could go to, this older sister felt very unsatisfied - it was because she was able to visit so few of the ones who meant so much to her. They had left this scene.

She then asked me to drive her up to the cemetery. We found several of the graves of God's faithful children. Both of us had been involved in those people's lives in such a different way. Before we got into the car, we looked back over that beautiful spot where so many of God's people were lying at rest. She said, "This will be a beautiful sight on the resurrection morn." That made the thought of awakening so real to me. We look at that with dim vision of course, because we cannot visualize physically what it will be like.

I Corinthians 15, that resurrection morn - Paul, in writing this chapter knows that there are many people who don't believe in the resurrection. One thought people will have is - how can there be a resurrection when you put a body in the grave and you know that it decays? Some bodies are completely destroyed. If there is not any body, how can there be a resurrection? Verses 35, 36-38, 42-44. Such a beautifully simple answer. It makes the resurrection very real to me.

The word dying would mean that when you put a seed into the ground, that seed would be corrupted. Like that of the body The seed will be transformed, but that grain of wheat that you put in the earth that is spoiled will send up a little plant and that little plant that comes up is completely different from the grain you put in the earth. It is green and tender, it has leaves. What you put in the earth was a completely different body - a little seed, hard, brown, and small, but the body that comes up is a completely different body - like the resurrection body.

When a seed grows, it isn't the seed that comes up. That is what the resurrection is going to be like. What is buried is a body we are very familiar with. What is going to come forth in the resurrection will be a completely different body. Every seed produces its own plant. Every body will bring forth its own resurrection body. That seems so real and simple to me. What could be simpler or more real and what could be more inspiring?

Verse 51, "Behold, I show you a mystery." What he has been showing before is not that complicated. A mystery. Verse 51-52, "We shall be changed." Not everybody will be in the grave when He comes again. When that happens and the dead are raised with a new resurrection body, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye we shall be changed. Changed from this natural body to that same spiritual body that the others receive when they awaken from the grave. This being changed incidentally is a mystery. He doesn't try to explain how that will happen. It certainly would give you a feeling that you don't want to miss it.

Verse 55, Where is thy sting? When you look at death and the grave in this light, there is no sting. Verse 54-55, to think about these things ought to help us to have a calm attitude about death; Verse 58, therefore means - with respect to all that we have said in this chapter about the resurrection - my beloved brethren be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. You cannot afford to miss it - the glory, the beauty, the power of the resurrection.

Steadfast and unmoveable seem to me to mean the same thing. Sometimes people are moved by storms, difficult experiences, temptations, false doctrine. Different things that come against people shake them and trouble them and move them. But if you could look at them thinking of the resurrection - don't let anything move you! You cannot afford to be swept away by anything - you don't need to.

He also says, "Be steadfast." Some people, even though they are not having storms, still just fall away. Be ye steadfast. We are tested by the length of the way as well as by the experiences of the way. Sometimes, even if we are not having difficult experiences, some lose their goal and fall - they are not steadfast. We need to be steadfast when it's calm and be “unmoveable”, when it's stormy.

More ships are lost in calm weather than are lost in stormy seas. I have wondered about that. The seaman that said it seemed to have a great knowledge of the sea. He explained, being a man of the sea, in a storm, it's all hands on deck and the very closest watch is kept and every precaution is taken, but of times in calm seas, precautions are relaxed and the crew become careless, and under those conditions, often the ships are lost.

We have seen some of our brethren go through terrific storms and they came through them stronger than they went into them. We have seen brethren have a shipwreck, so to speak, and there didn't seem to be that much reason for it. Thinking of the resurrection ought to help us abound in the work the Lord.

When we awake on the resurrection morn, we are all going to say, "I wish I had put more into it." Therefore (Verse 58) we could all be putting more into it than we are. In the end, we will wish we had. Some people can see so much to do and so many ways to serve, and other people just don't see it. They just don't see it but someone will pick up and accomplish what they could have done. Be sure your eyes are open, there are many ways to serve, and many things you can do. We just have to have eyes to see it. There is plenty in the way of helping others. So many opportunities of service.

We’ll end with this thought…..

Sometimes we say we would like to serve, but God has not made it clear to me where I should serve or what I should do. I wonder is it because we have not made it clear that we would be willing for whatever He wishes? Not just if it happens to appeal to us. Verse 58, "Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that; your labour is not in vain in the Lord."





We’ll close in prayer..

We are grateful for the burdens that you have taken from us. We are thankful daily for all of our gifts that you have bestowed upon us. Give us the wisdom to use them wisely, to value them as they should be, realizing that we are but clay You are the potter.. we know that all that we are and all that we have is only because of your patience, generosity and Love for us….Bless the gathering of souls this morning and our humble bible study. Show us the joy that we may have in our heart, only through you…

We ask these things in Jesus name..

Amen