“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”Acts 8:4 NIV
Today is Acts 8.
After Stephen was martyred, “great persecution” came against the church. This caused the church to scatter “throughout the regions.” But this did not stop the Good News about Jesus from continuing to spread. Those who were scattered continued on mission, “preaching the Word.” (Verse 4)
As they did, lives were being changed. Demons were being cast out of people, and the “paralyzed or lame were healed.” (Verse 7) In Samaria, it was reported that “there was much joy in that city” (Verse 8 ) because Philip had proclaimed Jesus to them and they paid attention to what was being said.
When we desire to serve God with all our hearts, opposition will occur. In America, we may not live under the threat of martyrdom, but that does not mean that our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, will not try to stop us. We must be determined to stay on mission and preach the Word!
We have the message that changes lives. We have the same Holy Spirit working within us to empower us to boldly proclaim Jesus! As we ask Him to fill us to overflowing, He will work in us and through us to proclaim Jesus to everyone we come in contact with no matter what opposition may arise.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13 ESV
Boldness! Peter, “filled with the Holy Spirit” spoke with boldness. Even when arrested and brought before the powerful religious leaders, Peter and John were not afraid.They continued to testify of Jesus and His salvation. This boldness gave evidence to the council of a fact. These men had been with Jesus!
Peter and John were “common men,” fishermen. They were “uneducated.” They were not the elite But there was one characteristic that stood out about them, “they had been with Jesus.”
When we live our lives surrendered to the Holy Spirit, filled with Him, it will be evident that we have been with Jesus as well. The same Holy Spirit, that enabled Peter and John to be bold and to display Jesus in their lives, desires to fill us and give us boldness as well.
After the council released Peter and John, they went to their friends and prayed. They asked for God to continue to grant them boldness so they could continue to speak His Word “with all boldness, while {He stretched} out {His} hand to heal, and signs and wonders {were} performed through the name of {His} holy servant Jesus.” (Verse 30) When they prayed the place was “shaken” and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Verse 31) With great power they testified of the resurrection of Jesus. (Verse 33)
We have a purpose in our lives. We are to know God and to make Him known. Peter and John gave evidence that they had been with Jesus, they knew Him. Everywhere they went they witnessed of Him, made Him known. God’s purpose for us has not changed! What God has called us to He will empower us to do! He longs to fill us with His Holy Spirit so that we can be witnesses! We can proclaim the Word of God with Boldness through the power of the Holy Spirit!
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”” Acts 1:8 NIV
Acts begins where the Gospel of Luke left off. For 40 days after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. Could you imagine what the disciples had witnessed with their own eyes? They had seen Jesus as the soldiers arrested Him in the garden. They had seen Jesus as He was beaten and nailed to a cross. They had seen Him as He breathed His last breath. Then they had seen the empty tomb! They had seen Him, in His risen form, as He showed them the nail prints in His hands. They had shared meals with Him, listened to Him teach them, and then they saw Jesus as He ascended into heaven!
But in all this, Jesus instructed them to wait. Jesus wanted to empower them to be “witnesses.”
Jesus had already told them that the Holy Spirit was going to come. Jesus came to us as “Emmanuel, God with us”, but the Holy Spirit would come to begin something new — God IN us!
Jesus said “… in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…” (verse 5) The disciples obeyed the words He spoke to them. They went to the upper room and were “constantly in prayer.” (Verse 14)
(I write these devotions as a daily text to my nieces. I began to share them on my blog. There is a reference to Grandma and Grandpa, my mother in law and father in law. They believed and received the gift I wrote about.)
Happy Pentecost Sunday! At Christmas we celebrated God with us. At Easter we celebrated God restoring relationship with us. Today we celebrate God in us!!
I want to encourage you today to reflect on the precious presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He is the comforter, the teacher, the intercesor, the one who empowers us. The promise of the Holy Spirit’s infilling is for today.
Your Grandma and Grandpa testified frequently to the difference they experienced when they received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Acts. They also practiced daily praying in tongues or praying in the Spirit. This is a part of your rich heritage. This gift of a prayer language that we read about in Ephesians:
“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication…” Ephesians 6:18 ESV
This Builds us up in our faith. I have experienced its benefits in my life as well. I pray often in the Spirit. It is a daily practice that has helped me in my walk with the Lord.
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,” Jude 1:20 ESV
I mention all of this because I know how hard it is to live victoriously in this world. This is one of the tools that God has given us to help us to overcome sin. I would encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and to desire all that He has for you.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV
The Apostle Paul spoke of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That is spending time with Him as a friend. I know only a small portion of what this is and I want to know it more. May we all desire to know Him as our dear and closest Friend. Love you all!
The final chapter of Acts tells of Paul’s time on the island of Malta and the miracles that happened there and his arrival at Rome. No matter what the circumstances or possible opposition, Paul preached to everyone and anyone who would listen to him.
The final verse of Acts says this:
“He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” Acts 28:31 NIV
He lived a life that experienced the promised power to be a witness. He knew how to receive comfort in hard times from the Holy Spirit. His life is an example of what being full of the Holy Spirit is like.
Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. It is a time to remember the wonderful promise fulfilled in the upper room years ago. We have an invitation to not only remember, but to receive Him into our lives and to pray for Him to fill us and overflow us. We can know the Holy Spirit and experience His fellowship, His closeness.
Paul sails to Rome, but along the way his ship ends up in a terrible storm and the lives of those aboard are in peril. Those aboard the ship “gave up all hope of being saved.”But God continues to speak to Paul about the situation. Paul told those aboard the ship with him:
“For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’” Acts 27:23-24 ESV
What God spoke to Paul eventually came to pass. The ship was dashed to pieces on rocks, but everyone on the ship survived.
This story may seem like a horrible detour, unfair to a man that desired to live his life only for Jesus. But, God had a purpose in it!
We go through things we do not understand, hardships… As we have yielded our lives to the Holy Spirit and trust God, we will see that God does work all things out for our good and for His glory.
Paul was brought before King Agrippa to plead his case. He once again tells his testimony of how he had an encounter with the living, resurrected Jesus. In that encounter, Jesus told Paul what his mission in life would be when he met him on the road to Damascus.
“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” Acts 26:16-18 ESV
He was testifying of the power of God that enables us to turn from the darkness of sin- anything we do that is against God’s laws and separates us from God. He told everyone he was in contact with about what he had both physically and spiritually experienced, a God who could take eyes that are blind- unable to see God’s ways and truth- and make them see. He spoke of forgiveness from God for the wrongs we have done and being set apart for God’s purposes through faith.
This is all still available to us today. The Holy Spirit continues to move our hearts to desire to know all of what Paul was telling King Agrippa about. We have a choice. King Agrippa did too. But his response was truly a sad one.
“And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind…In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”” Acts 26:24, 28 ESV
Paul’s desire was not simply to be free of his chains. His desire was that everyone he came in contact with would know the Jesus he knew. Paul wanted them to experience the relationship with the Holy Spirit he was experiencing. His response was this to the Kings question.
“And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.”” Acts 26:29 ESV
This is why I write these things to you. I know from experience the power of God who broke off the chains of sin by which I was held captive. I can tell you the difference of walking in the darkness of my own ways as opposed to walking into the light of God’s path- His ways. Do not be “almost persuaded” to surrender your heart entirely to God! King Agrippa walked away from Paul’s testimony of Jesus that day unchanged. May we see the value of what he spoke and seek out the relationship he described. It is the only way!
Paul stands trial before Festus and is brought before King Agrippa. This chapter has little to say about the Holy Spirit and His working in the situation. But we know from other books of the Bible that Paul spent his time of imprisonment, being chained to Roman guards, witnessing to them about Jesus and to all of those he came in contact with. The Holy Spirit also guided him as he wrote several of our books of the New Testament including Philippians, a book about God’s joy filling us in times of difficulty.
Wherever Paul was he was totally surrendered to the Holy Spirit using him. May our lives be the same!
Paul stood before Felix the governor. The High Priest brought in a lawyer to level accusations against him. Paul once again used this opportunity to present his faith in Jesus. Felix would call for Paul off and on several times.
I am struck by Felix’s reaction this time:
“As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”” Acts 24:25 NIV
Do we react as Governor Felix did? He was afraid when faced with his own shortcomings/ SINS. He told Paul he had heard enough for now, and he felt he could listen at his convenience. May that never be the way we respond!
The Holy Spirit points out our shortcomings/ SINS so we can repent of them. In repentance, there is freedom. Acknowledging that we have done wrong and we need forgiveness as well as the Holy Spirit’s power to overcome the SIN is the path to freedom from the SIN that holds us in chains! When the Holy Spirit points to an area of our lives that we have chosen sin over God’s way, may we be eager to repent!
Felix did not want to rely on God for freedom from SIN. He did not want to live as God wanted him to. He did not want to hear of the judgement he faced if he did not come to God in repentance. Felix wanted HIS own way above God’s. He thought he could come to God when it was “convenient.” He had his own power, position, and authority. He did not want to surrender in total obedience, total submission, and total dependence on God. He chose to remain in the darkness of his SIN.
May we have a soft heart towards the Holy Spirit and be quick to repent!
Paul stood on trial before the Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of the Jewish people. He knew some were Pharisees and some Sadducee’s. These were two different groups of the leaders. One of the differences was their belief in the resurrection of the dead. Paul knew this so he stated his belief in the resurrection. This caused an uproar between his accusers, and once again they wanted to kill him. They were about to tear him into pieces. Even so, the Holy Spirit gave Paul boldness to continue to testify. Jesus even came to Him in a vision, telling him he would go to Rome to testify.
Once again difficult circumstances surrounded Paul: accusations, beatings, imprisonment, death, etc. He could have recanted his stories, told his accusers he was a liar and he was sorry. He could have denied what he was proclaiming as truth. It would have all stopped and he more than likely would have been free. Perhaps they would have even made him a hero.
Why did Paul continue? He had a personal, face to face encounter with Jesus. He was changed. The Holy Spirit dwelled within Him. He was not the same man that was on the road to Damascus years before.
It is a known fact that out of the twelve disciples that followed Jesus before His death, eleven of them died as martyrs. Something they saw and experienced made them willing to die for what they believed. People do not die a martyr for a lie willingly. They had experienced truth!
John described it this way:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—” 1 John 1:1-2 ESV
God wants us to experience Him. This is why the Holy Spirit came to live within us. So we could see and touch. We can feel Him. Then we are able to testify to what we know!
May we experience the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives!
Your Love 