Category: Acts

Take a moment to read Acts 13:1-12 before reading the devotional below.

In yesterday’s post, we ended with the fact that following the lead of the Holy Spirit is a life-or-death matter. In today’s passage, we continue to see Barnabas and Saul (also called Paul at this point) rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit to carry out their mission of church planting. Recall that they have been at the church in Antioch for a year and now God is asking them to move along in their journey. I am struck by the fact that the Holy Spirit is able to communicate this message to all the leaders there while they are worshiping and fasting. And they didn’t just take that message and run. Instead they continue to pray and fast until they are all sure the message was clear.

Barnabas and Paul are led to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. There they encounter a sorcerer and once again we see the power of eye contact in spiritual discernment. Paul rebukes the sorcerer and strikes him blind, a unique reversal of so many miracles in which the blind were made to see. Of course Paul himself was well aware of what it was like to become suddenly blind, and perhaps his own experience during his conversion gave him an unusual authority to do the same to another who was in opposition to Jesus. The work of the Holy Spirit through Paul leads the governor of the island to put his faith in Jesus.

If you position yourself to listen, you can hear the Holy Spirit’s leading. Intentional times of worship, fasting and prayer are essential to one’s spiritual life. You will limit your ability to hear from God if you do not regularly engage in these spiritual disciplines. Living an empowered life requires you to go beyond the everyday into the supernatural. God will speak through his word to us all, but accurately discerning the Spirit must be sought after on purpose. And then a willingness is required to obey.

Take a moment to read Acts 13:13-52 before reading the devotional below.

Sometimes when people reject the message God asks you to bring, you need to shake the dust off your feet and keep it moving. Here in Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas move on from Cyprus and in their continued travels Paul preaches to an eager crowd about how Jesus fulfilled the Jewish law and history. He opens the Gospel up to the Gentiles as well and the people are so excited that the next week the entire city turns out to hear the message. The Jewish people and the God-fearing Gentiles are amazed to see how Jesus is truly the Messiah.

But of course, as we have continually seen in our exploration of Luke and Acts, the religious leaders do not like this message. One word struck me in verse 45: jealous. Turns out when you’ve been preaching in this place for a while and you don’t get a huge following, you start to want what Paul’s got. Unfortunately, instead of seeing that what Paul had was a supernatural anointing by the Holy Spirit, the religious leaders could only see from an earthly perspective. They thought he had popularity, not a unique calling from God. When an angry mob runs Paul and Barnabas out of town, they don’t doubt themselves or their calling, nor do they try to appease those who are jealous. They simply shake the dust off their feet and keep on moving.

Your calling is bigger than the reactions you get. Paul and Barnabas could have gotten caught up in that same earthly perspective that the religious leaders had — “Look at these crowds! We’re pretty awesome! (Sure, I’ll sign that autograph for you…)” Or they could have tried to make the religious leaders happy with them. But when God asks us to do something, we cannot live by the reactions of the crowd, whether it is good or bad. We must hold tight to the calling that Jesus gives us and not let go no matter what the circumstance.

Take a moment to read Acts 14:1-7 before reading the devotional below.

The mission of Paul and Barnabas is starting to seem a little bit like that movie Groundhog Day. Everywhere they go the same thing happens — they win over the crowds with the message of Jesus and those in power feel threatened and incite riots. They’re getting used to it now, so here in Iconium (a large city located in modern-day Turkey) they stay for a long time instead of leaving.

Can I be really honest with you for a moment? As I read the Bible and write about it, I keep running across the same thing. In verse 3 we find a theme we’ve seen so much in Luke and Acts: the Gospel message was proven to be true by the power they had to do miraculous signs and wonders. That was true all the way back to Moses and Pharaoh in  Exodus 3-12. But here in America I don’t see that power on full display. To be honest it is barely a flicker at this point. Too often, we put on a show with lights and bells and whistles, but we have no supernatural power to back up our message. If the church were a place that was famous for healing the blind, for example, I don’t think we’d have to try so hard to get people in the door.

I don’t have all the answers as to why we look around and seem impotent, but as long as Christians remain convinced that the Spirit’s power is limited we will not see miracles in our day. Who can we expect to preach the Gospel boldly if it is not those of us who already believe? I take note of the fact that Paul and Barnabas first preached, risking their lives daily to do so. It was after their bold courage that the Holy Spirit brought the supernatural proof. And perhaps that is what we have lost — a life-or-death determination to spread the word that Jesus is for everyone. And an almost total absence of miracles is the price we are paying for living lives absent of true risk.

Take a moment to read Acts 14:8-20 before reading the devotional below.

I don’t know about you, but my day has not involved healing a crippled man, having crowds try to worship me, tearing my clothes in anguish and getting pummeled with rocks so badly that people leave me for dead. In yesterday’s post, we wrestled with the difference between the comfort of our American lives and Paul’s missionary life. And I think sometimes we tell ourselves that he was meant to be different, or that only people called to be overseas missionaries live that kind of life. But what if we are all called to be missionaries like this?

I notice a pattern in the ministry of Paul and Barnabas — they preach, miracles follow, and then they win over a vast crowd of regular, everyday people. In today’s passage, those powerful and jealous Jewish leaders from Antioch and Iconium have followed Paul and Barnabas in order to kill them. Sometimes, we think that “risk” means getting rejected by the cashier in the grocery store when we say, “Merry Christmas.” Or we think we are daring for the Gospel when we preach in ways that do not at all win others over. Yes, Paul and Barnabas were offending people, but they were offending the same people that Jesus did: the religious powerhouses.

When you are boldly preaching the Gospel, the masses will be drawn to your message. If we are simply offending people at our workplaces by judging their lives, we are not helping them see Jesus at all. Somehow we have taken “persecution” to mean something very different than it meant for the early church, and it can sometimes be a license to be socially offensive. Let’s preach to the poor, heal those who cannot walk, tell of a love greater than anyone has ever known. Some people won’t like it, but it won’t be who you think.

Take a moment to read Acts 14:21-28 before reading the devotional below.

Our mission is about far more than winning souls. In some Christian circles, there is an emphasis placed on numbers of converts (people who pray a prayer to ask Jesus to forgive their sins and save them). While this is a critical piece of the spiritual journey, our work does not end there. Developing and training followers of Jesus is essential to the very definition of disciple-making.

Here at the end of Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas back track and re-visit many of the places where they had first preached the message of Jesus as Messiah. It says in verse 22 that they strengthen the believers through encouragement and reminders to risk it all for the cause. They solidify the leadership of the church through the careful appointing of elders during another time of prayer and fasting. And they settle back down at Antioch where they had previously served the church for over a year.

Becoming a disciple of Christ never ends no matter how long you have been a Christian — you are always able to grow into a more exact look-alike of Jesus. Allow me to be the one to encourage you today: keep going on your journey. Continue in your faith. Don’t give up. Press deeper into what it means to suffer on earth in order to bring about God’s kingdom. Tell the stories of God’s work in your life and stay on mission no matter the cost. We’re all in this together, one day of freedom at a time.