SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Above All-Lenny LeBlanc

A Study in Acts Week 16

Acts Chapter 16

Verses 1-5 – Timothy, son of Eunice, who became a Christian in Lystra, became a helper of Paul’s. Eunice was Jewish, while Timothy’s father was Greek. In this passage we see Paul wanting to help Timothy “fit in” with the social structure of the Jews. The child of a mixed marriage, Jew and Greek, was considered Jewish.

Verses 6-10 – God has had a plan for the spread of His Gospel since before time began. Through His Holy Spirit, God directed Paul away from Ephesus and Asia and sent them to Macedonia, instead. The interesting use of the word “we” in verse 10 indicates that by this time, Luke (the writer of Acts) was traveling with Paul and Silas.

Verses 11-15 – There did not seem to be a synagogue in Philippi. To set up a synagogue, there had to be 10 men or more. This was a Jewish rule. But in Philippi, only women met together. They could not set up a synagogue, so they met by the river. It was probably so that they could wash themselves. This was one of God’s commands in the Jewish Law.

Paul sat down with the women and he taught them. This was very astonishing because the Jewish men were not allowed to teach women. Paul was the first to begin liberating women, he even allowed them into Christian worship services, something that would never have been allowed in the Jewish synagogue.

Lydia traded in purple cloth. Purple was a very expensive color because it was difficult to make. Purple cloth was a luxury. Only rich people could afford it.

The Holy Spirit was working in Lydia and opened her heart to the gospel. When a person believes the gospel, the Holy Spirit makes that happen.

We must tell to people the good news about Jesus. We may be able to do this very well. Or we may think that it is difficult to do. But we must remember this: Paul said that the gospel comes ‘not only with words. But it also comes with power. And it comes with the Holy Spirit’ (1 Thessalonians 1:5).

The church in Philippi began with just one woman, who accepted Christ as her Savior. It grew and it became a large church (Philippians 1:1). And its members were generous (Philippians 4:15-16).

Verses 16-22 – Luke wrote about three people who came to know Christ in Philippi  Lydia (rich); a slave girl (poor) and (in verses 23-24) an officer in the prison (middle class).

Verses 23-34 – Here is the well known account of Paul and Silas in prison for bringing the poor slave girl to Christ and costing her “owners” a lot of money. The proper understanding of the guard’s question has to do with his fear that he would be executed for losing the prisoners. He asked how to avoid being killed, but he was told how to receive life everlasting.

That’s a good exchange!

Paul’s statement about the guard’s family being saved was clearly predicated on each of them, individually, coming to Christ. To be consistent with the rest of Scripture, the idea that one person’s salvation can provide salvation for another is impossible. Verse 32 tells us that Paul preached the gospel to everyone in the house and then they came to the Lord along with the head of household. Verse 34 indicates that they received the Holy Spirit, who made them happy.

As great as the miracles of converting a rich person, throwing the demons out of the slave girl,  and escaping from prison were, the real lesson here is that salvation is for ANYONE who will come to Christ in faith, believing.

Verses 35-40 – Having thrown Paul and Silas in prison without a trial, and learning they were Roman citizens, the officials apologized to them, mostly to avoid their own prosecution.

After encouraging the believers in Philippi, Paul and Silas went on their way.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Lift High the Lord Our Banner-MS Baptist All-State Youth Orchestra

A Study in Acts Week 15

Acts Chapter 15

Verses 1-11 – This chapter represents one of the most important decisions the early church had to make: Legalism or Freedom in Christ.

If a Gentile wanted to become a Jew, he had to receive circumcision and obey the Law of Moses (Old Covenant). Here we see the Jewish Christians wanting Gentiles to become Jews before they would be “allowed” to become Christians.

The church has wrestled with the underlying philosophy represented here for ages. It is called “legalism,” and it is present in the church today.

Christians will say, “I’m not a legalist, but…” That is impossible. You either are or you are not. There can be no “but.” This is the very issue Paul wrote about in Galatians about the group called Judaisers.

Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to help straighten out the matter of “circumcision,” and outward sign of commitment to Judaism.

Paul was a Pharisee, and understood what the Judaisers believed. The Law was very important to them.

Verses 12-21 – In Jerusalem, the Apostles met. Peter was their spokesperson, and recounted his conclusions following his experience with Cornelius, as well as the “bed-sheet” full of  “unclean” food. He asserted that Moses Law is like a heavy load and that placing that load on believers would not be God’s will. “…we receive salvation by means of the Lord Jesus’ grace, whether we are Jews or Gentiles.”

Today’s church often takes the stand: Salvation is a free gift, but we must obey the rules. Salvation is free, but me must do good things to prove it is ours. Salvation is a gift, but we must earn God’s blessings and favor. Salvation is free, but you must understand certain doctrines before you can be saved. This is exactly the opposite of what the New Covenant is about.

Under the New Covenant, if you really believe in it (“it” being Him, the Lord Jesus), you are free to do what you want, only your wants change. You now want to become more and more like Jesus through a heart-change. Your understanding of what God wants from you and for you is written on your heart by the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Barnabas both explained this to the other Apostles. Then James, the brother of Jesus spoke about the promise of the New Covenant. He suggested a letter telling the Gentiles to follow four “rules”: 1) Don’t eat meat offered to idols; 2) Don’t eat animals that had been strangled; 3) Don’t eat meat with blood in it and 4) Don’t do wicked things that have a connection to sex.

James did not suggest these rules because they were necessary for salvation. He suggested them so that Jews could mix more easily with Gentiles. The Gentiles should understand and respect the social customs and history of the Jews.

Verses 22-29 – The Apostles at Jerusalem chose Judas Barsabbas and Silas to go with Paul and Barnabas to spread the good news. The letter they sent along outlined what they had decided to help the Gentile Christians relate to the Jewish Christians effectively.

Verses 30-35 – After a while, Judas and Silas left Antioch, while Paul, Silas and Barnabas stayed to preach the Lord’s message of salvation.

Verses 36-41 – As we recall from Acts 13:13, John Mark had left Paul and Barnabas to finish their work. Paul was reluctant to agree to John Mark’s accompanying them, but Barnabas felt comfortable with him. After some discussion, Barnabas took Mark with to Cyprus, while Paul and Silas preached together. Paul later complimented Barnabas (I Cor. 9:6; Col. 4.10).

THE RELATIONSHIP

A Study in Acts Week 14

Acts Chapter 14

Verses 1-7 – The first thing to notice here is that Paul and Barnabas experienced the same thing in Iconium as they did in Pisidian Antioch, but there was a very different outcome.

They got in trouble. Their trouble was not because they preached sermons about the social evils of the day. It was not because they took a political side. It was not because they contradicted scientific or philosophical issues. It was for preaching the good news (gospel) of Christ, crucified, buried and resurrected for the remission of sin.

The Jewish leaders were as upset with Paul and Barnabas as they had been with Jesus, Himself. It is not our stand on social, political or historical issues that offends people, it is the gospel, itself. The Jews tried to divide the people and wanted to execute Paul and Barnabas by stoning them to death. Paul and Banarbas left for Lystra and all they preached was the good news.

We have no other message. Period. End of discussion.

Verses 8-13 – Lester was a Roman city, and there was no synagogue there. So Paul preached in the street. While preaching the gospel, he saw a man who had been born crippled. (Remember, Acts was written by Luke, who was a doctor…thus his interest in this healing).

I take the phrase, “…he had faith…” to mean that he had heard Paul’s preaching and had responded to the gospel. At any rate, Paul told him to stand and he stood.

Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made, and often they heal themselves by “natural” means, as when a wound heals over time. But this was not a natural healing, it was a healing from God, distinguished by the fact that it was immediate!

The crowd misconstrued what was going on, thinking that Paul and Barnabas had the power. They started calling Barnabas Zeus, the chief Greek god. They called Paul Hermes, Zeus’ son. They wanted to make sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas.

Verses 14-20 – Paul and Barnabas were so distraught at the people’s misunderstanding of who they were, that they literally tore their garments, to keep from looking polished and suave as a god would look. They did not want to be worshiped, far from it. They wanted the glory to go to God.

All of this angered the Pharisees again. They had followed Paul and Barnabas from Antioch. They were as determined to kill these two preachers as they had been to kill Jesus. This time, they thought they had succeeded. They stoned Paul and dragged him to the burial mound outside the city. But the disciples gathered around him and he stood up, brushed himself off and went right back to the city to stay the night. Then he and Barnabas went to Derbe.

Verses 21-28 – In Derbe, Paul and Barnabas once again began to preach the gospel. People responded to the message and became disciples. Disciples are not just followers of someone. The word “disciple” is the from the same root word, “discipline,” meaning to learn to put into action what their leader did.

It troubles me that churches lead people to the Lord, baptize them, give them a short course in being a New Church Member, and then just let them go their merry way without training them to do what Jesus has commanded us to do.

People cannot be discipled from the pulpit. They cannot be discipled in a Sunday School class. To be discipled, people must be trained to do themselves what needs to be done in the Kingdom of God. They need to be trained to be teachers, preachers, deacons, musicians, missionaries, Bible students, hospitality coordinators, administrators, ushers, worship leaders, apologists, ministers to the elderly, to hospitals, to the community and hundreds of other tasks.

We need to lead them to be committed to the grace (Gods Riches At Christ’s Expense) of God.

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Life Is Hard (But God Is Good)-Pam Thum

SUNDAY SOUNDS OF PRAISE-Jesus Messiah-Chris Tomlin

A Study in Acts Week 13

Acts Chapter 13

Verses 1-3 – Some leaders of the church in Antioch, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen and Saul, were worshiping when the Holy Spirit told them to separate out Barnabas and Saul to do something special.

Verses 4-12 – The Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul to Salamis, on that island’s east coast. It was an important city for trade. Many Jews lived there. So, Barnabas and Saul usually preached to the Jews first when they came to a new place.

Paphos was the capital of Cyprus. People there worshiped Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and sex. The city was famous because the people there were so wicked. The ruler of Cyprus, had a private magician, a Jew. God had said that people must not do magic (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). But Bar-Jesus (Elymas) did magic. If his master became a Christian, Elymas would lose his job as magician. Therefore, he opposed the Barnabas and Saul. He tried to persuade his master not to believe the Christian faith.

Often, Jews had their Jewish name and a Roman name, too. Luke begins to call Saul, Paul, suitable because Paul had become a missionary to Gentile countries.

Because Bar-Jesus tried to keep the gospel message from his boss and others, God struck him with blindness. Both he and Simon the magician (Acts 8:9-13) had a certain power, but God’s power was, and is, greater.

Verses 13-15 – Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia. Then they went to Pisidian Antioch, one of several towns referred to as “Antioch.”

Here they went to the synagogue to read from the Old Testament, the books of the Law and the books of the prophets. Paul’s first public speech was about the meaning of  these books and how they pointed to God’s New Covenant.

Verses 16-25 – Paul addressed the Jews and the spiritually minded people in the synagogue. He went over their history, good and bad. He reminded them of God’s patience with Israel. He also  reminded them that God had promised to give them a Savior.

Verses 26-41 – The second part of Paul’s speech is all about Jesus. In the end, Jesus is the only message of the Bible. From Genesis to the Book of the Revelation, Jesus is its cornerstone and Jesus’ gospel is its reason for being.

Paul covers Jesus life, His trials, His death, and His resurrection. He showed the Jews how their leaders should have known Jesus when He arrived, but how they did not understand the meaning of the Scriptures they read.

A majority of people, including theologians, Bible “scholars,” pastors and lay people still do not understand what they are reading when they read the Bible. Paul spoke of being freed from the penalty of sin through Christ.

Verses 42-52 – As usual, the Jews did not like the message brought by Paul and Barnabas. Paul declared that he had to tell the good news whether they liked it or not.

Paul told them: “We had to tell God’s message to you (the Jews) before we told everyone else. But you rejected it! Therefore we shall go to the Gentiles. This is what the Lord ordered us to do. He said this: “I have put you here to be a light for the Gentiles.

In the end, we are to tell all people the good news of Jesus, regardless of their national origin, their culture, the color of their skin, their world view and/or their redicule. We tell the story, and we leave the results up to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

WAITING IT OUT

Cleopas here.

Remember I told you that Jesus had appeared to us and said, "...stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven?"

So we waited.

And waited.

Seven weeks we waited.

Can I tell you something?

We were confused.

Several of the other believers had started to doubt that Jesus was going to send this Holy Spirit person. Some thought He had already come and we missed Him.

It was the day of Pentecost and we had planned this big committee meeting, with a feast and all, to figure out what to do next.

I mean, if this was it, we might as well all go back to what we were doing before Jesus got our attention.

So there we were. People from all over.

It was tough. We didn't speak the same language. We couldn't communicate well.

How would we ever be able to decide what to do?

What happened next is beyond description, but I'll try.

There was this noise like a thousand tornados in the sky over us.

No, not a thousand...a hundred thousand.

It was ear piercing! We could not hear ourselves think, let alone talk to one another.

Then what looked like sparks or flame or something...no it wasn't really fire, but that's the closest I know how to describe it to you.

It's not like it was hot or anything, just all flickering and bright and red and orange and yellow. Not fire but like fire.

I guess.

The firey stuff came right down and settled on our heads.

That was tense.

Suddenly there was a presence in each of us that we could not understand. We all knew that everyone else there was having the same experience!

As soon as this presence entered us, we began to be able to communicate with people from far away lands whose language we had never heard before, let alone spoken.

The commotion attracted others from all around, more foreigners.

There were people from Greece, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Turkey, Phrygia, Pamphilia, Egypt, Libia, and even Rome.

We met Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Jews, Cretans and Arabians.

It would have been a real mess, except that by some miracle we could all understand one another.

Here's what was happening. When someone started telling about the mighty miracles of God, we could understand him as though he was speaking in our own language!

Some non-believers in the crowd thought we were drunk.

Then Peter, one of the original men who had walked with Jesus, stepped up and started a speach.

He spoke Aramaic, but everybody understood him.

"People of Jerusalem and visitors, too! Listen up!

"Some of you think we are drunk, but we're not.

"What is happening is what was predicted by the prophet, Joel centuries ago.

"Remember he wrote, 'In the last days,' God said, 'I will pour out my Holy Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men dream dreams. Yes, the Holy Spirit shall come upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they shall prophesy. And I will cause strange demonstrations in the heavens and on the earth - blood and fire and clouds of smoke; the sun shall turn black and the moon bloodpred before that awesome Day of the Lord arrives. But anyone who asks for mercy from the Lord shall have it and shall be saved.'

Peter went on to tell us all about the prophesies of Jesus in the Scriptures, His life, His death and His resurrection.

He closed by saying, "Therefore I clearly tell you all that God had made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be the Lord, the Messiah!"

I was totally impressed.

I shouted out, "What should we do?"

Peter heard me and answered, "Each one of you should demonstrate your willingness to follow Jesus by and act of repentence. Then you should give testimony to your idenification with His death, burial and resurrection by being baptized.

"But take heed!" This came in a tone of warning, "Do not submit to baptism unless you have been called to repentence. When you have done this, you will understand that the Holy Spirit has come to live in you!"

Some people there did not think Peter was in his right mind. They just left, shaking their heads.

But you know what?

Three thousand people believed him and were baptized that very day!

I even helped baptize twenty or so. I actually lost count.

That was a long time ago, but I though you might be interested in my story.

I'm still filled with the Holy Spirit and still love Jesus.

I'm very old, now. I don't think I have much longer in this old body.

But don't you worry about me. I know that when I breathe my last breath here, I'll breathe my first in front of my wonderful Jesus, face-to-face once more.

He'll say to me, "Well done, my friend Cleopas! Enter into the joy of My Kingdom!"

And I will.

EMMAUS

We started telling everybody in Emmaus about our experience.

Then we knew we had to go back to Jerusalem to join the other followers.

And we did.

That very hour!

When we got there, we found the disciples who told us about Jesus having risen.

You should have seen the looks on their faces when we told them we had seen Him, too.

"Are you sure?" They asked the question as though they were not too certain of their own experiences.

"Yes, we are very..." but I did not get to finish the sentence.

Suddenly the room was filled with that same Light that Magmus and I had seen before.

And there before us stood Jesus!

"Why are you frightened? Why do you doubt that it is really I?"

"Look, here are my hands with the nail scars. Here are my feet. Don't be afraid. Touch me. I have a real body."

Out of nowhere, "Let's eat!"

Jesus seemed to really like to eat!

See, that's one reason we had to believe He was real. Ghosts don't eat that much.

"Do you remember how I told you about how what Moses and the prophets wrote and the Psalms must all come true?"

All of those Scriptures we had been told suddenly began to make sense. Our eyes were opened and we began to understand.

"Long ago it was written that I would suffer, be executed and rise again. It was written that this message of salvation should be taken from Jerusalem out to all the world. You have seen these prophecies come true right before your eyes.

"Shortly you will receive The Holy Spirit, just as the Father promised."

I was not sure what this "Holy Spirit" was, but if Jesus wanted me to have it, I certainly did want it.

"When you have received Him, He will give you the power to tell others about me. In fact, everything He does will point directly to my saving grace and nothing He does will fail to magnify me."

He. He called this Holy Spirit "He." That seemed very strange to me.

"Let's all go over to Bethany."

To be honest with you, at this point I would have followed Him anywhere.

He stopped for a moment.

I noticed that the breeze stopped and the place grew quiet.

Jesus lifted up His hands and the most remarkable thing happened.

He started rising into the sky!

This was no magic trick. Jesus was going up and up and up.

We stood awestruck for the longest time, until He had disappeared.

We were so amazed that we began to worship Him with all our souls!

It was with great euphoria that we continued in this spirit of worship all the way back to Jerusalem.

I cannot tell you how much joy just overflowed from us all.

We just kept praising and praising. And we told anybody who would listen about what had happened.

Even in the Temple we were telling and praising, telling and praising.

I am here to tell you, the feeling has never left me.

With every passing day, I love Him more and more. I have committed myself to serving him and telling His story for the rest of my life.

Oh, and by the way, the Holy Spirit did come.

I'll tell you all about that experience when next we meet.

Let me just say this for now.

Although you cannot go back in time and experience what I have told you about, I have it on good authority that if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, a remarkable chain of events will take place inside of you and will receive an indescribable gift: eternal life!

Do you want that?

It's free!

And if you have it, you will not be able to stop praising and worshipping Him, too.

Every day with Jesus
Is Sweeter than the day before.
Every day with Jesus
I love Him more and more.

Jesus saves and keeps me.
And He's the one I'm living for.
Every day with Jesus,
Is sweeter than the day before.

Every day with Jesus
I'll be walking down the King's highway!
Tell me the old, old story.
I love it better every day, Hallelujah!

I will make you fishers of men
If you'll only follow me.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
I'm from sin set free!

And that's enough to make me sing!
And that's enough to make me sing!
My sins are all forgiven and I'm on my way to Heaven
And that's enough to make me sing!

Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Prasie ye the Lord!
Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Prasie ye the Lord!

Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord, Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Hello. My name is Cleopas.

I was a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Well, not a follower in the sense that I was close to him or anything. I literally just followed the crowds, watching the miracles and listening to his strange and wonderful teachings, and hanging near his disciples.

I really thought he was going to be the one.

They crucified him Friday. That left me demoralized and shaken.

That had to be the low point of my life.

We don't even really know who to blame.

The priests wanted him dead, I can't imagine why.

So did the Scribes and the Pharisees.

King Herod thought he was nuts, but harmless.

Pilate could find nothing worthy of arrest, let alone death.

In the end, though, Pilate was more spineless and ambitious than anyone imagined.

He gave the crucifixion order to keep down the "Jewish Problem," and to show Rome how well he could handle the local uprisings.

Any way, they killed him and we did not know what to do.

One thing was for certain, we did not want to hang around Jerulalem so Magmus and I headed out of town.

We decided to go to back home to Emmaus.

There were not many people out that day, so Magmus and I pretty much had the road to ourselves.

Out of nowhere this other guy showed up.

He must have been behind the rocks or bushes or something, because he just sort of was all of a sudden walking beside us.

We both jumped like we were dodging a Roman spear. We didn't know whether he was there to rob us or what.

He spoke, "You must be concerned about something very important. Mind if I ask what you're discussing?"

"What is anybody discussing?" I asked, kind of...well, snootily, I guess. You know, like, how could he be so out of touch?

"We're talking about the last few days." That was Magmus' voice.

"What about them?" he asked. "What's up?"

"Are you part ostrich?" It was really not a nice tone I used. "You must be the only one within a two day's journey who does not know what's on everybody's mind."

"Tell me."

"The crucifixion, man. The crucifixion."

"They crucified the man from Nazareth, that prophet, Jesus."

Magmus filled in. "We thought he was the glorious Messiah, come to rescue Israel for Rome. But it was not to be."

I interrupted his trailing words. "Then Sunday, some women went to his tomb and came back with a story about the missing body, angels and I don't know what all."

"They even reported that they had seen him alive! How pitiful is that?"

"Personally, I think the Jews stole the body, or maybe the ones closest to him. Or maybe he didn't really die, just swooned and was awakened by the cool temperatures of the tomb, although how he, in his condition, holes in his hands and feet, a sword wound in his side, managed to move that big rock, I'll never know."

Suddenly he spoke. This time it sounded different somehow.

"You are such foolish, foolish people. You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets tht the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?"

Well, when we heard that we knew a couple of things for sure.

First, he wasn't a robber.

Secondly, he was pretty smart.

He didn't look like a Rabbi or a student, but he sure did know the scriptures. It was as though he had written them himself.

He started in Genesis and went right on through to Malachi.

And every book and verse he quoted pointed to exactly what had taken place.

I don't know why the religious leaders had never shared that with the people. But it sure was an eye opener.

As we neared Emmaus, Magmus and I had so many questions and were so spellbound by what he was saying that we asked him to stay over with us.

At first he seemed to resist the idea, but finally he agreed and we had the most wonderful supper and conversation.

So many things suddenly became clear, as though our eyes were seeing Life for the first time.

And as we looked at him, it was as though the Light of the Universe was focused in our one room.

Oh, I tell you the truth, we realized that we had been walking, talking and eating with Jesus.

Magmus and I danced and bounced around the room like children of the living God.

TO BE CONTINUED.