Tag Archives: church

Acts 2: the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost

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What happened in on Pentecost in Acts 2?

Any knowledgeable Christian knows that early believers spilled onto the street speaking in tongues. Peter preached to the crowd that gathered, and 3,000 people believed and received baptism.

In other words, Acts 2 described the birthday of the church, but let’s not pass too quickly over the opening verses of the chapter. The first four verses describe five important events.

They were all together in one place

Acts 2:1 says they were all together in one place. Who are “they”?

Ten days separate the Ascension from Pentecost, ten days that saw some important decisions.… Read the rest

Ask for the ancient paths, the good way

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mountain landscape. ancient paths

Highway construction is big business in this country. I love it when a new stretch of highway makes it easier to get where I’m going, and sometimes, I’ll drive on a new road just to see where it goes, whether I’ll ever use it or not. Sometimes, new construction completely obliterates an old road. The Bible says to ask for the ancient paths. What does it mean for the church today?

Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.

… Read the rest

The body of Christ: what is it and how does it function?

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body of christ graphicThe Bible uses several metaphors to describe the church. All of Paul’s extended descriptions of God’s gifts give attention to various concepts I like to think of as the giftwrapping. Prominent among them is the metaphor of the human body. The church, that is, is not a building or a random group of people but the body of Christ.

The most extensive description of gifts (1 Corinthians 12-14) includes the most extensive description of the church as the body of Christ. Let’s take a careful look (quoting from CSB).

… Read the rest

The subversive healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate

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Healings occur frequently in the New Testament. They testify both to the power and compassion of God. Acts 3 describes the first healing after Jesus’ resurrection: Peter and John’s healing of the lame man at the temple and the speech Peter gave immediately afterward.

The same people who hated Jesus hated Peter and John for this deliberate act of subversion.  It’s easy for us to understand its life-changing impact on the beggar. It’s less easy to notice it’s meaning in the life of the church.

… Read the rest

The leaven of the Sadducees in the modern church

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Jesus warned his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matthew 16:5-12). After a while, they understood that he was warning them against their teaching. Today, we speak much more of the Pharisees than the Sadducees. We have forgotten to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees in the church.

Mix leaven (yeast or baking powder) with a flour dough and the whole dough will rise. The leaven leaves no flour untouched. Although Jesus once compared the kingdom of heaven to leaven (Matthew 13:33), it usually signifies some kind of corrupting influence. If the leaven of the Sadducees corrupts good teaching, we need to consider what it is and how to identify it.… Read the rest

Speaking in tongues: why are some churches so afraid?

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On the day of Pentecost, 120 followers of Jesus began speaking in tongues. That is, they spoke in some other language besides the one or ones they knew. They spilled out into the street. Some foreigners in Jerusalem for the festival recognized their own native languages.

That strange sign caught people’s attention. Peter addressed the crowd and 3,000 of them believed in Jesus. The Christian church was born.

Speaking in tongues on that occasion began to reverse the confusion of languages God had inflicted on the builders of Babel. It brought a kind of unity where there had been division before.… Read the rest

The spirit of Jezebel in America

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Jezebel is the name of an ancient queen of Israel. She is notoriously one of the most evil women in the Bible.

Jesus criticized the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29 for tolerating “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.” Her parents never named her Jezebel. Jesus invoked the name of the ancient queen to show what spirit animated her teaching.

We don’t normally think of Jesus as intolerant. It is clear, however, that whatever he didn’t tolerate two thousand years ago, he still doesn’t tolerate. “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV).

Unfortunately, the spirit of Jezebel has reared her ugly head in America in recent decades.… Read the rest

Speaking God’s word to a rebellious church

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Does it require courage for a man of God to speak to the people of God?

It shouldn’t, but sometimes it does. God’s chosen people have consistently rebelled against God’s chosen leaders and messengers. They started against Moses. The rebellious church today continues in the same vein.

God called Ezekiel as prophet to the sons of Israel and told him not to be afraid of their looks or words.

And that’s after Ezekiel had seen four creatures that had four faces apiece. After it dawned on him that God himself appeared to him with them. People can be scarier than the weirdest supernatural visions. … Read the rest

Who wants to stone Jesus?

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In John 8:59, a crowd wanted to stone Jesus. Today I’m going to start there and work backwards for a while. Why, you might ask, would I do that?

Careful writers often proofread from end to beginning. They have worked on their draft for so long they know what it’s supposed to say.

So they read the last paragraph, then the previous paragraph, and so on to the beginning. It shows what they otherwise might easily miss.

Reading familiar Bible passages from the end to the beginning can also show details we have probably read past before.

Who wanted to stone him?… Read the rest

Knowledge, Christian freedom, and love

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Have you ever noticed that the world of the Bible is very different from our own society? Sometimes it can seem hard to relate to some of the topics.

But we’re not as far removed from the ancients as we like to think. After all, we’re human, too.

The church at Corinth sent Paul a letter with some questions. We can reconstruct them in the structure of 1 Corinthians.

Paul begins various sections with the phrase “now concerning.” In 1 Corinthians 8, it’s “Now concerning meat sacrificed to idols.”

It still matters.

… Read the rest