January 25, 2015
Morning Meeting
Let’s turn to John 1:18. In John 1 we get some things that are incomprehensible. In this verse, the Son is in the bosom of the Father. It is an expression of the enjoyment of divine love. This verse is in the present tense, which means there has never been a time when He was not in the Father’s bosom: the very source of love. God is love. That is the theme we have had this morning: how that love causes the One in the bosom to declare it. But in order to declare that love to us, He had to go to Calvary. “In this was manifest the love of God that He gave His only begotten son.” Some ask the question, “During the hours of darkness, was He in the bosom of the Father?” Yes, He was, but He probably wasn’t enjoying the love. He took that place where He couldn’t enjoy the love, so we could come to a place where we could enjoy that love. That is our eternal portion. We have had a small portion of this before us this morning!
Hymn 282 - What a friend we have in Jesus
Prayer
God told Nehemiah to build the wall of Jerusalem. They had met difficulties during the process. Enemies had mocked them and threatened to kill them. They had constantly been on watch with weapons by them just in case something happened: they were prepared for the enemy.
Nehemiah 6:1 - 15
The enemies (Sanballat and Tobiah) were trying to distract Nehemiah. They had changed their tactics from physical force to just trying to take him away from his work. We can be distracted from what we are to be doing. We must try to focus on what God has given us. Sanballat and Tobiah knew that if they could distract the leader, the building would stop. They tried three times. They’re weren’t giving up easily.
Next they sent a invitation asking Nehemiah to meet them. But Nehemiah knew they were planning mischief. He replied, “I’m doing a great work, and can’t come.” This reminds me of the Lord’s great work. Some said to Him, “Come down off the cross.” But He didn’t come down; He was doing a great work for us.
Nehemiah’s enemies tried many times. Some people would give in with enough attempts. When Delilah asked Samson the secret to his strength over and over, he finally gave in to her persistence. But Nehemiah didn’t give in; he wouldn’t be distracted.
Next they sent Nehemiah an open letter. This letter accused Nehemiah of trying to rebel against the rightful king and become king himself. This was a false accusation. We saw in the last chapter that Nehemiah didn’t take advantage of his leadership. If he wanted to be king, he would have acted differently about it. Nehemiah wrote back, “You made it up in your heart. It’s not true.”
The enemy was trying to weaken his hands. In our song, we sang about prayer. Nehemiah prayed to God to strengthen his workers. Nehemiah was faithful and used his resource of prayer, and asked God to help them complete the job.
Next the enemy hired a man who claimed to be a prophet, and had him try to make Nehemiah afraid that the enemy would kill him. He told Nehemiah to flee to the temple and hide there. It was wrong to go into the temple unless you were supposed to. Nehemiah refused again. He knew the man was lying. Sanballat and Tobiah got others to do the same thing, but it didn’t work.
Well, the wall was completed. They did it in fifty-two days. The enemy had tried, but the work kept going. Nehemiah and his workers saw that God was behind it and worked through them to finish it. That was a lot of work done in such a short time. Nehemiah depended upon God through it all. God prospered Nehemiah, and Nehemiah was faithful. He didn’t let the enemy distract him, and they were able to complete the work.
Acts 22:15-30
Ananias told Paul that he had been chosen to be a witness of what he had heard and seen. The Lord also told him, through Ananias, to be baptized. This was obviously Christian baptism, but it didn’t earn Paul salvation, as some might infer. Baptism had special application to the Jews: it showed their acceptance of Jesus, identified them with him as Messiah (while most Jews rejected Him), and associated them with Him in His death.
There’s a part of Paul’s story—recorded in Acts 9:19, 28—that we don’t see here in Chapter 22: the time he spent with the Jerusalem disciples. What we are told, though, is that Paul was in Jerusalem, praying in the temple, when he fell into a trance and the Lord sent him the Gentiles. This is the way it happened to Peter, when he was sent to the Gentiles. Both of them were faithful Jews.
The Lord told Paul to leave Jerusalem, for the Jews wouldn’t accept his testimony. The disciples were told that the gospel movement would start in Jerusalem, and then spread to Judea, Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the world. That’s where Paul was going: the uttermost parts of the earth. He had been an extreme Jew, but was now being sent out of Jerusalem, to a people that—under the law—he should have had nothing to do with. Peter had been sent to Cornelius, but now Paul was being sent to the Gentiles because the Jews wouldn’t accept his testimony.
Paul protested to the Lord, “They know how I persecuted this way, and how I approved of Stephen’s death.” In other words, “They know I was a faithful Jew; why wouldn’t they accept me?” He was a bit like Jonah, for Paul’s heart was with his people. He wanted to give them a chance at grace after what he had done to them. But the Lord told him, “Get out of here. I’m sending you to the Gentiles.”
This stirred the people into a frenzy. They didn’t want the Gentiles to benefit from the grace of God! The Jews felt like they had a right to God. They were fine with Paul’s speech until he told them that he brought grace to the Gentiles. They were fine with him being nasty to Jews; but not with him being nice to Gentiles. When they heard that, they wanted to kill him; which is what they did to the Lord—their Messiah—and what they did to Stephen.
The chief captain intervened at this point, carried Paul into the castle, and ordered to interrogate him with torture; which was common in those days. There were some rights respected in those days, though, and a Roman held special rights. Paul was a free-born Roman, and used that fact to save himself. Apparently, if you weren’t a free-born Roman you could purchase citizenship, as the captain had.
Next time we’ll see how Paul went before the court. He’s definitely not at liberty as before!
Hymn 234 – Saviour lead me lest I stray
Prayer