January 12, 2014
Scripture:
Turn to John 15:12 & 13. We have been pondering the Lord’s love for us. It was a love that was stronger than death. When we think of all that He had before Him and of all the wretchedness of nailing the Lord to the cross, we find in all of that a story of love. We are so grateful and should respond to it. He has an everlasting love. Read John 3:16. It was God who loved that world and that measure of love was so great that He gave His son. I think of the type in Genesis 22, of the love of a father for a son. God loved the world and loved the Son; and He “so loved” that He gave the One He loved, because it was the only way to have salvation. So we have had the love of the Lord for us, the love of God for us and the love of the Father for the Son before us. There are two other types of love brought out here: love one to one another, and the response to His love to us. His love draws us here to remember Him. May His love flow from us and in so doing, give us joy as in John 15:11.
Hymn 332 - Christ the Saviour of sinners came
Prayer
We’ve been looking at the life of King Hezekiah. In 2 Chronicles, Hezekiah is given three tests. A test is set of questions, or an activity, about a topic to gauge a person’s knowledge in that area; you either pass or fail. Today, we will look at four aspects for Hezekiah’s test. First, we will see what the test was; then, we look at his response; thirdly, we will see what the outcome was; and finally, we will give him a grade.
2 Chronicles 32
2 Kings 20
Last time we read about Hezekiah’s first test, but let’s do some review. The King of Assyria came against them in battle. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord for help. The Lord did help and they won the battle. Hezekiah passed this test.
Hezekiah’s second test was a time of sickness. He was so sick that he was about to die. The prophet Isaiah even came to tell him that he was going to die. Hezekiah’s response to the news was to pray. He told the Lord that he had followed Him throughout his life. Before Isaiah had time to even leave Hezekiah’s palace, the Lord came to him again and told him that Hezekiah would live for another fifteen years. Isaiah went back to Hezekiah and told him the news. God was going to give a sign to Hezekiah to prove that he was going to live: he wondered if Hezekiah wanted the shadow to go forward ten degrees or back ten degrees. Hezekiah chose for the shadow to back ten degrees, since the sundial always went forward. Another pass.
Test three was actually Hezekiah himself. After he got well again, visitors from other countries came to visit him. Foolishly, he showed these visitors all his riches, without telling that the Lord had helped him to obtain all these riches. Sadly, Hezekiah’s pride got in his way, because of this the Lord’s wrath came upon him and the king of Babylon came and took all his riches. Unfortunately he failed this one.
When Hezekiah looked to the Lord for help, he did well; but as soon as he looked at himself, he failed. We need to go to the Lord and ask him to help us through each test that comes to us.
Acts 6:9-15, 7:1-8
Last week we saw the disciples choose seven men to serve tables, while the apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the word of God. They prayed over these men, and the apostles laid their hands on them. Verse 7 shows us that there was still a remarkable work going on in Jerusalem at this time.
Two of these seven men are specially singled out in the next few chapters of the book of Acts: Stephen and Philip. Stephen was a gifted man, and did many works and wonders among the people. He was full of faith and power. Paul mentions power in II Timothy 1:6-7. This power isn’t something that was just for Stephen and Timothy; it can be for us, too. We don’t have power in ourselves, but we are given what we need by the Lord. We need to depend on Him. II Corinthians 9:8. Maybe we can’t perform miracles, but we have all the resources in the Lord to do what we need to do. Stephen was full of faith, and that’s where it all starts: faith in what God can do.
Stephen didn’t have our full Bible, but we should know our Bibles the way that he knew the history in the part he did have: very well. He was also a powerful speaker like Peter. As he went about his duties he must have spoken, and this brought more than a little opposition from the synagogue of the Libertines (Darby: freedmen), and other groups. These were promoters of Judaism; and they weren’t able to resist the power that Stephen spoke with.
Judaism used to be the right system of religion, and most of the disciples at this point in church history had once belonged to it. Pentecost, though, had brought in the new dispensation of grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
These men conversed with Stephen, then debated, and then argued. They couldn’t overcome him, so they stirred up the people and got the religious leaders involved against him. They caught him, brought him to the council, and accused him of speaking against the law. With all of the law’s requirements, you’d think that they’d be glad to have a divinely-sanctioned alternative, but they weren’t. So much for being freedmen. They had to choose between law and grace, and they choose law.
They wanted to be rid of Stephen, so they hired false witnesses against him like they did with Jesus. It didn’t seem to matter that bearing false witness is one of the seven things that are an abomination to the Lord. This didn’t move Stephen, though. He was still in full joy of the risen Christ; so much so that his face looked like an angel’s.
These Jewish rulers had rejected Jesus in the flesh, but they were about to be given the opportunity to receive Him raised and in heaven. Stephen, specially gifted, was the one to bring the invitation. Once these rulers rejected Christ for the second time, Acts moves on to the next stage of grace: the spreading of the gospel beyond the Jews; first to the Samaritans, and then the Gentiles.
These men chose to stick to the burdensome traditions of the law. Stephen, on the other hand, was full of the resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Hymn 380 – Standing by a purpose true
Prayer