Meaninglessness vs. Hope
Father, thank You for the wherewithal to get through so much of my sermon today. I pray tomorrow, as well, is a productive day!
Acts 25:1-22 (<<click here to read the passage)
I thoroughly enjoy history! My family finds it of little interest…it doesn’t hold a lot of meaning for them. But I enjoy reading about it and watching shows about it, but one thing I struggle with is writing about Biblical history.
Now often I can find inspiration in the actions of the characters in the stories as they move along but, in Acts, for example, it has become difficult. These verses, in particular, are basically a historical record of what transpired between Festus, the Sanhedrin, Paul, and a tad bit at the end for King Agrippa II and his wife Beatrice.
A few different people are involved but overall, it is the same conflict. Even though a full two years have passed, the friction between Paul and the Jewish leadership hasn’t changed. Paul is still innocent, and the Sanhedrin are still out to kill him. Roman hierarchy is still unsure what to do about it all in that from their perspective, no civil or criminal crimes have been committed. As Festus puts it,
…instead they had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about one Jesus, a man who had died, but whom Paul kept asserting and insisting [over and over] to be alive. vs19
Festus was at a loss as to how to investigate these things… vs20 AMP
Almost 1000 years before Paul, “wise” King Solomon wrote,
“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 NLT
Can you relate? Solomon even with all of his wisdom, power, and wealth found life meaningless. From his viewpoint, there was no hope.
Paul had wisdom – true wisdom – yet he had no earthly wealth or power. But from his viewpoint, he had the only hope that mattered!
In Acts 25:19 Paul kept asserting and insisting [over and over] that Jesus was alive! When all is said and done human history will be found to be completely meaningless. Paul invested wisely and so are we if we keep asserting and insisting over and over that Christ is alive, for there, and only there, lies our hope!
Aug 10th, 2022, Wed, 8:56 pm
It’s Amazing!
…God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” Genesis 9:12-16 NLT
As we were on our way home from running some errands in Columbus, we ran through some light rain. Not a whole lot but enough to get things wet. Shortly after getting off of the interstate, Karen was the first to spot a rainbow! (They are so cool!) It was off to the right of the van so I couldn’t really get a good look at it, but when I made a sharp right-hand turn, I could see it in all of its glory! Initially, we could see the whole rainbow end to end in front of us and a lighter leg to its left as well! As we traveled home the right side faded from view, but the left side deepened it is vibrancy! It was magnificent!
In my admiration, I thought of writing about it but remembered writing about a rainbow I and my kids saw on my bus route a little over a year ago (see Promises, Promises). But this time my mind was going in a different direction. (There is no limit to what God can enlighten us to regarding his Word and creation!)
A rainbow is formed when light goes through water droplets in the sky. The droplets act as prisms that break the “white” light from the sun into seven distinct colors. From inside to outside, the colors of a rainbow are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
What amazes me is how long the droplets can consistently fall through the sky allowing the light to pass through them. Today’s rainbow lasted at least 10 minutes, whereas last year’s rainbow lasted for almost 40 minutes! It’s astounding!
But one very important thing…it is not happenstance! It’s not just science! It is a wonderful part of God’s creation!
God has made it in such a way that each part – the sun and the droplets of water – has to be in its particular place at just the right time and angle to bring it into being! Isn’t God amazing?!
But it’s not just the physical parts that are awe-inspiring. His promises are awesome, too! The promises of God in His word are numerous – the existence of the rainbow being just one! There are times when we are blessed by those promises because He loves us so. But I believe that sometimes there are promises that only come to fruition when we are in the right place, at the right time. God yearns to bless us, but we can be out of line with His will, determined to do our own thing, and miss out on the promises He wants to bless us with. Sometimes we just allow the world to distract us with all of its glitz and glitter, and forfeit the glory of God in the process.
I am so grateful that in His grace and mercy He continues to extend His blessing to us, but oh what we might see and experience if we would but yield ourselves to His loving will. Lord Jesus, may we see and yearn for Your abundant blessings! Amen!
Aug 8th, 2022, Tues, 9:41 pm
Yes, No…or Wait
Praise the Lord!
How joyful are those who fear the Lord
….and delight in obeying his commands. Psalm 112:1 NLT
Acts 24:1-27 (<<click here to read the passage)
Today we visited a favorite restaurant. They were busy, with only a couple of tables empty in their dining area and there was only one server for the whole room. She brought our drinks pretty quickly but getting our orders and food out to us took a little while.
One of the aftereffects of COVID is that many restaurants are understaffed. We’ve come to accept that and where in the past we may have gotten a little uptight about waiting, we were totally at ease with today’s situation. Our server did an amazing job keeping up with everyone –drinks were refilled, and we were well taken care of. (By the way, the food was hot and delicious!)
Many of us struggle with waiting. We get impatient. In some cases, we even get upset and we may even take our anger out on people who are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances.
Switching gears, how are we with God?
As a children’s pastor several years ago, we had evangelistic services for our kids, while the adults had theirs. The couple we had did a wonderful job – I remember commitments to Christ during that time! In one service they spoke about prayer. They said that God answers our prayers in one of three ways – YES, NO, or WAIT. That’s stuck in my head now for close to 25 years!
Paul had been through quite a bit. He was almost killed by an angry mob of his own people. And even after he was rescued by a Roman commander and his men, they still plotted to take his life! But God was there, for …the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.” Acts 23:11 NLT
A full escort took him to stand before the governor of Judea –a 60-mile journey. Shortly thereafter a delegation of Jewish leadership came with their accusations, yet nothing came of it. Felix, the governor, made no decisions regarding the allegations brought against Paul, but instead kept Paul in custody but… gave him some freedom and allowed his friends to visit him and take care of his needs. Acts 24:23 NLT
When all was said and done, Paul languished in custody for two years! He was supposed to go to Rome but instead, he got stuck in Caesarea Maritima – talk about a wait! Yet nothing is said about Paul growing impatient with the Lord’s timing. He was called regularly to speak before Felix and his wife and shared freely of Jesus and His work but, come on, two years?!
When we’re stuck and feel that God isn’t moving fast enough, what do we do? Do we get angry and lash out? Or with no clear “yes” or “no” as an answer to our prayers, do we patiently wait?
Lord Jesus, help us to keep our trust firmly placed in you. May our patience withstand what we see as an onslaught of time. May we cling to the promise that Paul himself shared in Romans 8:28,
And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose. AMP
Amen!
Aug 7th, 2022, Sun, 8:47 pm
Above and Beyond
Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.
….All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Psalm 111:10 NLT
Acts 23:23-35 (<<click here to read the passage)
How many times do we try and put God in a box of our own creation? One way we do this is that when we try and tell God what we need, we tell Him how we would like Him to fulfill that need. As is far too often the case, we tend to think small. If we are living as children of the Creator of the universe, wouldn’t we be better off placing our need(s) before Him and then yielding ourselves to how God would deem fit to answer those prayers?
Our passage doesn’t speak of Paul making particular requests on how he got to Rome, but knowing of Paul’s relationship with the Lord, I’m sure he just yielded himself to however God would choose to get him there. And God came through in a mighty way!
God didn’t just send Paul off with staff in hand and a couple of companions. God knew of those bent on taking Paul’s life and made sure that on the first leg of his journey, he would travel protected and well-cared for – and that’s putting it mildly! He definitely went above and beyond in His care for His faithful servant!
All that the Roman commander knew of Paul was that he was a Roman citizen. He didn’t question the importance of getting him safely to the next level of governmental review. He pulled out all of the stops in doing so, and because the Jews were aggressively plotting to take his life, he did so with great expediency.
He called two of his centurions – officers who led 100 men each – and ordered them to take their men (200 soldiers), along with 200 spearmen and 70 mounted troops. to escort Paul safely to Governor Felix who ruled from Caesarea Maritima (Caesarea-on-the-Sea). [Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish government, but Caesarea was the Roman headquarters for the area* – known as Judea.]
The Roman commander provided Paul with an overabundance of protection, and he provided horses for Paul to ride as well! Before the Jewish leadership and plotters even knew what was going on, he had them on the road by 9:00 that evening. vs23-24 NLT
God knows our needs.
God knows all about those who stand in opposition against us.
We know that He encourages us to bring our needs to Him, but the question is do we trust God enough to take care of the details? Too often in our world we are micro-managed and we often micro-manage the situations around us – you know the “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” mentality!
God does not need micro-managed! Trust God to be God! He may call us to contribute but move forward in God’s great love and care. He can be trusted to go above and beyond!
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
Aug 4th, 2022, Thurs, 6:57 pm
Going Hungry for Nothing!
He has paid a full ransom for his people.
….He has guaranteed his covenant with them forever.
….What a holy, awe-inspiring name he has! Psalm 111:9 NLT
Acts 23:12-22 (<<click here to read the passage)
As I began reading these verses, I just had to shake my head. Verse 12 reads,
The next morning a group of Jew got together and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. NLT
Of course, I know what happens in Paul’s story, but the utter futility of these 40 men in thinking that they will be victorious. They don’t really know God or His ultimate plan at all, but even though they don’t know it, they are fighting against God. Oh, how soon we forget lessons learned!
We are almost to the end of Acts but very close to the beginning, when Peter and the other apostles, were arrested by the Sanhedrin for proclaiming the Gospel, a wise Pharisee [Gamaliel, Saul’s (Paul’s) mentor] stopped the council from killing them by saying,
“Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. …Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:35, 38b-39 NIV
These 40 oath-takers starved themselves for absolutely no reason! Their goal was stopped dead in its tracks, for they were fighting against God!
A few years back, I quoted a portion of an article regarding the sovereignty of God. It’s a big concept to grasp and the definition I found did a great job of helping us understand it. Well-known pastor and author, Chip Ingram, puts it this way, “…the way I like to explain God’s sovereignty best is simply to say, ‘God is in control.’ There is absolutely nothing that happens in the universe that is outside of God’s influence and authority. As King of kings and Lord of lords, God has no limitations.” (from Christianity.com)
Paul himself, before he came into a saving relationship with Jesus, had learned that “kicking against the goads” achieved absolutely nothing! (Acts 26:14)
These 40 men, the Sanhedrin – all of them – were working so hard to have their way! But they were all doomed to fail! God. Is. Sovereign!
We have free will. We ultimately decide what we will do with our lives. We can go God’s way…or our way, but regardless, no amount of effort on our part can thwart God’s will. In this case, there is no power in numbers. Our stubbornness is exerted to no avail.
The plans of the wicked are easily sidestepped by God, as we will see as we continue our study in Acts 23.
Aug 2nd, 2022, Tues, 8:19 pm