May 25, 2014
Scripture:
Scripture:
Hymn 91 – On Christ salvation rests secure
Prayer
We have been reading in the book of Ezra. King Cyrus had allowed as many of the Israelites as wanted to, to go back to Jerusalem to build the temple. Today we will look at the Jews worship, as well as how they built the foundation of the temple.
Ezra 3:1 - 6a
The Jews that went back set up an altar. On the altar, they would offer animals as sacrifices unto the Lord. They were following the instructions that had been given to them by the Lord. Worship is giving thanks for what the Lord had done for us. In John 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well that we are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth: in the truth the Bible has given us and in the spirit of our new life in Christ. Some of the Israelites here gave a free will offering. These people decided to give more than what they were asked to give. Everything we do, whether work or play, has to be done in a way that honours the Lord: this shows our appreciation for what the Lord has done for us.
Ezra 3:6b - 13
If you are going to build a structure, you need to build the foundation first. The Jews hired masons to do the brick work. Then they need big timbers, so they hired people of Tyre and Zidon to send these from Lebanon. They floated the timbers down the Mediterranean Sea to Joppa and carried them on land from there. Two years after coming from Persia, the foundation for the temple was finished. There were to different reactions to this accomplishment: the older men wept because they remembered the old temple, which was bigger than the new temple; the young ones were happy because the temple had begun to be built.
Acts 13:4-23
Here we start off on Paul’s first missionary journey. He and Barnabas were sent on this mission both by their assembly and the Holy Ghost. They went to Seleucia and then to Cyprus. When they had come to Salamis, they preached the gospel in the Jewish synagogue. The Gospel was first preached to the Jews; then expanded to the Gentiles. All this time, John Mark—who we believe wrote the Gospel of Mark—was with Paul and Barnabas.
If the Holy Spirit is working in a place, you can be sure that the Devil is as well. When called to speak to the deputy of the country, Paul and Barnabas found a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet ready to withstand them. The deputy, Sergius Paulus, was a good, prudent, man, though. He had heard that Paul and Barnabas had come and were preaching, and desired to hear the Word of God. May that ever be our hunger! All that Paul and Barnabas said would have been new to this man. They didn’t have all the Scriptures that we do, though, so it would all have to come out of the Old Testament.
Elymas—the sorcerer—didn’t want the gospel for himself, and he tried to turn the deputy from the faith. That’s typical of the Devil. “The faith” here is a noun referring to the truth of God: the Christian faith.
Paul condemned this man strongly. Like our enemy, he was full of all subtlety and mischief (Darby uses the words “deceit” and “craft”). The Devil can appear as a roaring lion, or an angel of light, or a serpent.
We are blessed to be the contrast of this man. He was a child of the Devil; it’s good to know that we are sons of God. He was enemy of all righteousness, but we were made the righteousness of God—imputed with God’s perfect righteousness—when we were saved.
This man thought that he was right, but Paul gave him a withering blast and condemned him to blindness for a season. We see in him the condition of the Jewish nation: blind concerning the Lord that they condemned. Interestingly, Paul was also blinded when given the truth. For him, things were so bright that he was blinded, but a mist and a darkness fell over Elymas, and he went looking for someone to lead him around.
This scene had an affect on Sergius Paulus. These two sides—Elymas, and Paul and Barnabas—had been pulling in opposite directions on him. Seeing Paul rebuke and blind Elymas, he believed, because he xwas astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. He must have believed the Lord’s truth; not just in His miracles, like many people in the gospels.
Paul and Barnabas moved on, but John Mark left them. His coming and going don’t get much attention in the text, but they caused a big rift between Paul and Barnabas later on.(Barnabas wanted John to join them again, but Paul didn’t.) Acts doesn’t say why John left: maybe his heart wasn’t in the work, or maybe he only served the Lord when convenient. We will hear more about him later in the book.
Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch in Pisidia (a different Antioch), and again spoke in the synagogue, similarly to how Jesus did in the Gospels. After the service began, and the rulers of the synagogue invited them to speak. Paul started off with a brief history of the people of Israel. In v. 17 we have the book of Exodus; in v. 18, the book of Numbers; in v.19, Israel takes Canaan, so that’s Joshua; v. 20 is the Judges; v. 21 is 1 Samuel with Saul; v. 22, II Samuel with David; and finally in v. 23, Paul lead them right into the raising up of the Saviour, David’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Jews were, and still are, God’s chosen people. We Christians are, too, however. We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Children of Israel were strangers in Egypt, and we were strangers to the covenants of promise. The Lord has delivered us both with a high arm. He suffered the manners of—or nursed and fed as a child—the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, but we’ll have to leave them there until next week.
Hymn 332—Christ the Saviour of sinners came
Prayer