Acts 5:12-16 – The Apostles heal many.
- “Three Theme Summary”.
- Three themes that I have been reminded of often in my devotions are in this short passage.
- Firstly; God is God.
- He does respond to human need the way we would. In past devotions I saw how on several occasions He ignored the manners and customs of the days and got straight to the real issue.
- Here again there is an element of this.
- Our response to the need to reach people is to make things as easy as possible. Entertainment and relevance is high on our list. We sometimes bend our message just a little towards people. Yet here we find people were terrified of what was going on. And yet, on God’s terms not theirs, they bent the knee. This ancient method of God’s to grow a church produced a people who would become a worldwide missionary movement.
- What kind of people will our modern church growth programs produce?
- Secondly; God connects initially with our ignorance.
- The people brought their sick hoping that the Apostles shadow would fall on them and they would be healed. We might see that as magic or superstition. Yet throughout my devotions and I finding out how God meets us where we are in our understanding.
- Once connecting with us in our ignorance; He then draws us towards a better understanding of who He is and how He really wishes to operate in our lives.
- We see this with His condoning of sacrifices and the shedding of blood for the remittance of sins and Jesus’ healing with saliva.
- Thirdly; God rarely initiates healing.
- I discovered this a long time ago and have had it confirmed time and again as I do my devotions each day. It is the people who bring their sick and dying to the Apostles. Their faith is demonstrated in their creative ways to get their loved ones to God.
- Their actions are followed by their belief. Like Bartimaeus and the woman with the issue of blood with Jesus, these people were convinced and were pro-active otherwise Jesus would have just walked passed them.
- He draws near to us as we draw near to Him.
- Three summaries and three lessons for those on God’s mission not their own.
- Today I will pray to be constantly reminded of His ways.
What kind of people will our church programs produce? My simple answer is: people who are "limited" to what they were taught to expect or told was possible, or normal (I am guilty of this). If we read the bible for what it is then the gifts of the Holy Spirit are limitless, therefore our effect for the Kingdom only limited by how big our faith in Him is.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that even the apostles during these days were pretty astonished at how much healing they were doing, how fast the church was growing, how much support they were getting "now" versus "two weeks" earlier.
It seems to me that Jesus took them outside their comfort zone while he was with them, but the Holy Spirit took them on a new journey, WAY outside their comfort zone.
Shouldn't that be how it is in our lives...we meet Jesus at the cross.. believe, confess, accept forgiveness. Then Jesus turns to the Holy Spirit, looks at us and says "Here is your guide, put down that big backpack of security you have been carrying around, warriors travel light and quick. Welcome to the battle, I will see you again when you come home."