Day 41: Controversies, Arguments, Imprisonment: The Grace of God

So Paul and his companions have been finding some success preaching the gospel of Jesus among the Gentiles, when there appears a competing group who also preach Jesus -- plus circumcision.  This development leads to the first church convention, where the topic at hand is:  What should we do with all these non-Jewish people who want to be Christian?  Some people thought they ought to be circumcised; others (including Paul) did not.

Success has its price.

As well, note that even at this early date, there were disagreements among believers.  In this case, after heated discussions, the church came to an agreement about what they would ask from the Gentile believers:  not circumcision, but abstaining from eating blood, and food sacrificed to idols, and sexual immorality.

Having dodged this bullet, however, Paul and Barnabas somehow couldn't fix a rift that developed between the two of them.  We really don't know much about the rift, except that it had to do with John Mark.  Barnabas wanted to take him along with them; Paul did not.  On the basis of something as simple as this, Paul and Barnabas part ways.  Paul teams up with Silas, and eventually Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman and a Greek father (interesting that he has Timothy circumcised because of the company with whom he expects to be traveling.)

It's sort of sad that the church could come to an agreement with respect to the first controversial issue they faced, but that Paul and Barnabas couldn't come to an agreement with regard to John Mark.  But that's the way it is in churches sometimes, isn't it?  It is the (seemingly) little things, the rifts between individuals, that catch us up, oftentimes more than the big and controversial theological issues of the day.  it is the arguments about which songs we sing and who distrusts who that end up generating the heat, even now.

That being said, Luke is still pretty clear that it is the Holy Spirit that directs or impedes their progress.  The Holy Spirit leads them to Macedonia, where Lydia hears the message of Jesus and believes.  Later on, though, Paul casts an evil spirit out of a young woman.  This good deed is rewarded with time in prison for Paul and Silas.  (it seems that the evil spirit was a source of revenue for the owners of the young woman.)

As has happened before, a way for the apostle to escape from jail presents itself:  an earthquake!  but this time, instead of escaping, Paul and his friends stay put, and in this way confess their faith in the one who has set them free.

There is more than one kind of captivity
And more than one way to be free.

The Acts of the Apostles..... are to be continued.

Day 40: The Message Expands outward, with opposition

There's a shift coming here -- in chapter 12, it is the preaching and message of Peter which still take precedence, but shortly the apostle Paul and his exploits will take center stage.  Though right away we can tell that the church is growing, and that the opposition is growing too.

James, John's brother is martyred, Peter is put in prison, and the church is under duress.  It is not explicitly stated, but the implication is that Peter is about to be martyred.  But an angel leads him through locked prison doors, until he is comes to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.  (this is where the believers often met.)  He knocks on the door, and a little servant girl named Rhoda answers the door.  She is so excited to see him that she forgets to let him in!

Also, just inside, many disciples are sitting in a circle and praying for Peter.  Imagine their surprise when the answer to their prayers is suddenly standing among them.

Perhaps it felt as if Jesus had been resurrected again.

Answers to prayer are not always (or even usually) so dramatic or immediate.  But this gives you an idea of  how the Spirit directed the early believers.

So the Spirit sends them out from Antioch, even farther out.  Paul, Barnabas and John Mark head down to Seleucia, to Cyprus,  and to Paphos and Perga, preaching in the synagogues and then going out to tell the Gentiles as well.

Paul preaches a sermon telling the basic story about Jesus.  He meets with success at first, but later on, some of the other Jewish leader come in with questions, and their success is diminished.  This is the pattern wherever he goes, whenever Paul goes out into the world; he always goes to the synagogue first, and then later on, they go out to the Gentiles.

Even when Paul meets with success, there are complications.  Paul heals a man in Lystra, and then has to deal with the problem that the people there think they are gods, like Zeus and Hermes.  They are too popular for their own good.  Even so, it appears that the crowds of believers are easily swayed, and later on Paul is stoned and left for dead.

Crowds are fickle.  It is ever so.

And even success bring complications, for the early church, and for us.