Monthly Archives: September 2020

A Study on Acts Chapter 24

Posted on by

In this blog post I am going to pick up from where I left off in my series on the Book of Acts. Looking back at the previous chapter. The people conform a conspiracy that they will not eat until Paul is put to death and Paul is taken to Caesarea, and he is placed in Herods Praetorium while they wait for his accusers to arrive. We see that Paul is constantly facing persecution, yet through it all he finds his strength in Jesus Christ. Finding strength in Jesus Christ is not so we can live an abundant lifestyle, it is to simply bring glory to God.

The Case is Made Against Paul

In the first portion of Acts 24 we see five days after Paul arrives his accusers come. We see Ananias along with the other Jewish elders arrive to bring evidence to the governor against Paul. The lawyer bringing forth the case, Tertullus, first gives complements to the governor Felix for bringing peace to their land. In Acts 24:5-8 (ESV) we see the accusations against Paul , “For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.  He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.”. The accusations are that Paul is a plague, the Greek word for this is loimos which means a pest. Some translations write it as ‘a troublemaker’. They also accuse Paul of being a creator of conflict, a ringleader for the cult of the Nazarenes, and attempting to desecrate the temple.

Paul Pleads His Case

Paul defends himself from the accusations. Unlike Tertullus, Paul does not complement Felix, he simply pleads his case. Paul mentions how what they call a sect or cult, Paul refers to it as the Way. Paul also makes mention of the resurrection of the dead, which is something that is very controversial between different groups of the Jews. The resurrection of the dead is not only mentioned in the New Testament, but also in the Old Testament, Daniel 12:2 (ESV) says, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”.

More Discussion Between Paul and Felix

We see Paul also mentions about striving spiritually in verse 16. (AMP) “In view of this, I also do my best and strive always to have a clear conscience before God and before men.”. In the ESV this is written as “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.”. We need to be striving spiritually. We need to be striving in our personal discipleship, we need to be striving towards a holy and sanctified lifestyle. John Piper says it best “the world does not need cool Christians who are culturally saturated. It needs exiles with the scent of heaven and the aroma of Christ.”. I would like to challenge every Christian to the question, are you culturally saturated right now, or do you have the aroma of Christ? With all that is going on in 2020, it is easy for us Christians to become culturally saturated. We have a particularly important election coming up in just a matter of weeks. Everyone of us has our own opinions that we are vocal about regarding what is going on. Christians should vote according to our Biblical convictions. However, what should our message be this time of year? Are we supposed to be trying to shove a particular candidate down people’s throats? Or are we to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples? No politician will save this country! Yes, God can appoint people to carry out certain tasks, but no politician is this nations savior. One day every President in this nation whether genuinely saved or not will have to bow down to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

We see that while Felix waits for Lysias to come and testify that he becomes troubled when Paul discusses self-control righteousness, and the Last Judgement.  Felix sends Paul away but continually calls him back to have conversation with him. He does this to have favor with the Jews. We see that Festus takes over after and Paul will now have to testify for him. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If we lack any of the fruits of the Spirit, then we need to spend time in prayer and lean on Christ in our weakness. We must fight the good fight of faith and fight against all the lusts of the flesh!

Sinful Desires

Romans 6:12, “Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.”. With the sexual immorality that is in our ‘entertainment’ system it can become so easy for us to fall into the many traps of sin. When temptation comes our way, we must acknowledge it and respond Biblically. We need to be well-grounded in the Word of God. Jesus responded to the devil when tempted with Scripture. If you are being tempted realize it right away, pick up your Bible, begin to pray, put some worship music on. We need to make war when it comes to temptation. Not every sinful habit immediately falls off when we are born again, that is why we need to develop a good lifestyle of discipleship.

Temple of Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us our physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. When we are genuinely born again, the Holy Spirit enters us. We need to treat our bodies as temples. Imagine if you owned a million-dollar mansion, you would not let it turn into a dump, you would properly maintain it. We are to treat our bodies with care. That includes what we allow ourselves to see and hear, be incredibly careful of what you entertain yourself with. We also must take good care of our bodies in a physical sense. We must eat healthy and not let ourselves live an unhealthy lifestyle.

Righteousness

Paul also talked about righteousness. Romans 3:21-26 tells us how by using the Law we see how unrighteous and guilty we were. However, because of God loved us so much He laid our punishment out on Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. Blood was shed for our sins; the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sins. We must all repent of our sins and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone. We are unable to be righteous by our own strength, it is not possible. Righteousness is only achievable through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. You will not be more righteous because of doing good works or saying the Rosary. Genuine Salvation will of course bring forth good works as a result, Jesus tells us that they will know us by our fruits.

There are many important points in Acts 24, I encourage you to study and meditate on this chapter in your own private time with the Lord. With all that is going on in the world right now, we must realize how important it is for us to be students of Gods Word. We must take time with it each and every single day. Before you read it each day, pray that God grants your spiritual knowledge and revelation, and also keep your mind clear and focused as your read His Word.

The Core Issue

Posted on by

There has been much going on lately in this country and around the world. We are in the middle of a pandemic, and this has impacted every single one of us at some level. Whether you have tested positive for COVID, know someone who has had it, or even has died from it. Many people have been laid off, lost their jobs, lost their businesses, and so much more heartache this year. Much debate on the credibility of everything we are hearing, I am not going to debate that because it has nothing to do with the core of the issue in this country.

We have all witnessed extreme acts of violence all across this country. People are upset about social injustice, the leadership of this country, and so many issues. Are these issues important? Absolutely! Is dealing with COVID-19 important? Yes. Is the future of the Supreme Court important? Definitely, we need to be praying about all these issues and having civil discussions about them.

However, all these issues our country is trying to solve, will not be solved by a democratic or republican solution. Yes, legislation can be put in place to make circumstances better, but we still will always have racism if we look to our politicians to fix the problem. Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, nor Mitch McConnell will be able to solve social injustice 100%. Neither will any of their successors.

The division is real in our country on so many levels, and it just has not started with this President, it has always been there. We are just living in a day in age when the division is at its final stage. It is like cancer that has remained hidden and got diagnosed at its late stage. We all want a cure for this cancer in our nation, but we look to our politicians as if they can fix it. None of them can! All they can do is offer bandages repeatedly and will fail every single time at solving the problem.

This country does not need another leader with good speech. This country needs the church to rise up and bring forth the True Full Gospel of Jesus Christ! The core issue here is SIN! When God created the world everything was perfect, yet when sin entered the world, everything drastically changed. And this is why we are in this situation today. God foreknew this would happen, that is why He sent His only Son, born of a virgin, fully man and fully God, to the world. His only Son did a brief earthly ministry and then was put under God’s wrath at the Cross, paying the penalty for each and every single one of our sins. All it takes is for us to truly repent and believe and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Yet people who are unbelievers walk around and say they are a good person because they volunteer their time at a soup kitchen. That is great, but the Bible says no one is good (Romans 3:10). People of this world and even hypocrites in the church have made a god of their own standards in their mind and fail to realize the sin they are in and the coming judgment. If you ever told a white lie, you have broken Gods Law and your final destination will be the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8-10). The only solution is to repent and believe (Acts 20:20-21). The repentance I am talking about is a God granted repentance meaning that your sin grieves you so much because you know it grieves God (Acts 5:31, Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25, Romans 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9). Many people claim to repent but it is a result of worldly sorrow, rather than a Godly sorrow.

The church in America needs to rise up for once and do what it is called to do! I am sick and tired of seeing Christian TV broadcast nothing but programs that ask you to send in large sums of money for a miracle, that is not the Gospel! (Jude 1:10-12) It sickens me that is what most people see when it comes to Christianity is people on the mainstream networks preaching the false prosperity Gospel. If the only preaching you have heard is from people like Benny Hinn, Joel Ostend, Rick Warren, and Kenneth Copeland, I am sorry you have been deceived by these wolves. These people offer a false gospel that looks attractive to the unconverted sinner, but in the end, their gospel does not save. These false teachers offer a gospel that says, ‘believe this message and everything will go well for you’. It is my prayer these people repent and in doing so shut down their ministry and sit down under the ministry of someone who preaches the True Gospel. We need to air the True Full Gospel on TV and on the radio.

Now let me say something here, me rebuking the prosperity gospel does not mean I believe God can’t heal. I believe God does heal. I am against these extremes that are off the deep end. You can go to an extreme one way or the other, we must stay balanced in Scripture.

The issue we are dealing with in life is like an iceberg. We can see the massive size of it above the water and from a spiritual perspective that is sickness, disease, poverty, and so on. However, what we do not see is far greater underneath the surface and that is sin.

Let the church rise up and preach the Gospel. This land needs a real revival, not a circus put on for money! The Gospel of Christ is the solution, not politics. If you could get a dozen Senators genuinely saved, imagine the change that would take place!

The Peace of God

Posted on by

We are certainly living in difficult and uncertain times right now. From the pandemic to the wildfires in California, to economic uncertainty, and even the unstableness of our leaders, it is easy for us to be given over to fear and anxiety.
For the true believer, we should know what the Bible says about fear. If you are living in fear right now you need to get into the Word of God and study it and meditate on it. We often find ourselves spending more time worrying about how to pay for an unexpected expense rather than about praying. We spend more time worrying about the results we got from the doctor’s office, rather than praying. Can you imagine how much different our lives would be if we would spend more time in prayer, than giving attention to all the worries that float around in our minds? We not only can pray for God to do the supernatural, but we can also pray for God to give us peace, wisdom, knowledge, and guidance as we deal with the worries of life.