Acts (Entry 2)

I mentioned in the last post: I can’t help but feel sorry for Paul. Just like Joseph in Genesis, he’s left to sit and rot in prison. A man of tremendous accomplishment, with much more potential and talent to reach the masses, is sitting still in shackles.

This situation reminds me of Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr. or even Moses in Exodus. These men get locked away or have to run for their lives for a period of time. All they’re trying to do is fight for justice. But the masses can’t handle it, or a segment of society can’t handle it, so the people bring all kinds of charges and false accusations to put these righteous men behind bars.

But back to the book of Acts:

I’m amazed by a few other things:

  • Paul’s dedication and complete life transformation.
  • Paul and Peter and John’s ability to heal and perform miraculous deeds.
  • The apostles and disciples ability to explain the entire Gospel from the Old Testament.
  • The Holy Spirit blocking Paul’s attempts to go north or east in Asia, and instead, he goes west and south to all kinds of cities along the Mediterranean coast. Ironically, or perhaps providentially, it’s because of this that almost all of the New Testament letters are eventually written. Paul visits these cities, then writes to these cities, and if the Spirit wouldn’t have blocked his initial attempts, it is hard telling what would have happened. Maybe Paul would have never stopped to write. Maybe we wouldn’t have the majority of the New Testament. Maybe the Roman Empire wouldn’t have been “Christianized” by Constantine. Who knows?!

I’m also struck by how many people are mentioned in passing. It’s like the entire book focuses on the apostles and their deeds, but almost no space is given to the other preachers, teachers, leaders of local churches. Almost no space is given to the number of people who supported them, prayed with them, worked with them, worshiped with them, etc.

Finally, I’m amazed, but not amazed at the same time, by the sheer apathy and inaction of the political leaders at the time. So many of the “public servants” are actually in it for themselves, are afraid to take action because they fear the crowds potentially disapproving them. Perhaps, that’s a constant throughout history, with some rare exceptions. Again, who knows?

At the end of the day, I suppose it is our responsibility — regardless of the crowds, regardless of accusations, regardless of public servants’ inaction, regardless of where we go — to act on two things:

Love God and love others

How can we do that? In the words of Tim Keller, by bridging racial divides, by caring for the poor, by forgiving others and having meaningful conversations, by saving unwanted babies, and by keeping the sanctity of marriage.

Do a couple of these sound right wing? Do a couple of these sound left wing? Yep. And that’s exactly the point.

Jesus and his followers didn’t live in 21st century America, but if they did, none of them would be aligning with a single political party. Jesus wasn’t a Republican, nor was he a Democrat. Neither were his disciples and followers. The disciples and apostles in the book of Acts aligned themselves with the things Tim Keller mentioned above. Because, throughout history, the healthiest followers of Jesus have always aligned with these things.

True Christianity is a great equalizer, between men and women, Jew and pagan, poor and rich, slaves and free. It is and always has been a subculture, a reconstructing, a redefining of all kinds of norms.

Acts (Entry 1)

For Acts, I switched to recap posts, rather than chapter by chapter.

I completed the book of Acts during the month of January. I am continually amazed at how stories slow down and speed up in the Bible. Here’s what I mean by that:

The book starts slowly. The way I understand it, chapter 1 through the end of chapter 7 barely cover a year, if that. It’s all about the disciples gathering, praying, selecting a replacement for Judas, and the Holy Spirit coming down. Peter preaches a few sermons. The number of people who place their trust in Jesus is growing day by day. Stephen preaches, but then is killed. And by that point, we’re at the end of chapter 7.

Chapters 8 through 12 are a bit of a middle ground, where we hear of the persecution of the new converts, Philip’s witness and tele-porting(?!), then of Saul’s miraculous conversion. We hear of some new developments in the church and the imprisonment of Peter. All kinds of fascinating things are happening, as the Gospel starts to expand outside of Jerusalem. But now the time is accelerating. This section covers more time than the previous 7 chapters.

By this point, things really start to speed up. From chapter 13 through the middle of chapter 21, we’re looking at decades of Saul’s (turned Paul’s) ministry. He travels to city after city, region after region, thousands of miles all along the Mediterranean coasts. It’s mind-boggling how many places he went and how many people he witnessed to during those years. He was beaten many times, chased out of town, persecuted, shipwrecked, etc. But he stuck with it, never ceasing to provide love, encouragement, Gospel-preaching, and correction to everyone who followed “the Way” and called themselves a Christian.

All of the sudden, the book slows down again. From the middle of chapter 21 to the middle of chapter 28, we barely cover 3 years, mostly full of Paul’s discourses. We hear long accounts of radical Jews bringing accusations against Paul. We hear Paul’s lengthy defenses. We hear how he went from one ruler, to another, to another as he sought to defend himself in the courts. I can’t help but feel sorry for Paul. Just like Joseph in Genesis, he’s left to sit and rot in prison. A man of tremendous accomplishment, with much more potential and talent to reach the masses, is sitting still in shackles.

As we close out the book of Acts, we see the second half of chapter 28 speed up again. Just a few verses cover at least 2 years.

To recap this (roughly speaking):

  • 7 Chapters (1-7): one year
  • 4 Chapters (8-12): five to ten years
  • 8 Chapters (13-21): ten to twenty years
  • 6 Chapters (22-28): three years
  • Half chapter (28): two or three years

You get a single discourse that can take up two chapters of text; then you get a single sentence that says someone stayed in such and such place for three months, or for two years, or for another two years, etc. It’s mind-bending. What else happened, what else was said, what other decisions were made during those times.

In the next post, I’ll cover some of my biggest takeaways from the book of Acts.

^Quick Disclaimer: I didn’t do a full-fledged scholarly study to gather this information. This is just what I could surmise from a quick and simple overview of the book as I was reading it throughout January. If there are any inaccuracies in what is written above, it is entirely my fault. I’m simply trying to show how the speed of the book changes section by section.

Jeremiah 39-40

I am stuck on these two truths:

The Lord punishes the wicked and upholds the righteous.

The Lord does whatever He pleases.

King Zedekiah watches the Chaldeans murder all of his sons. Then his eyes are poked out. The very last thing the man sees is his sons being murdered.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, is treated well and given freedom to live among the people.

Jeremiah 38

And Jeremiah sank in the mud.

…

…

Just let that ring in your ears and heart for a minute.

This man, this prophet, this man of God, is being obedient, proclaiming the words the Lord tells him, living uprightly–and for all of this, he is thrown in a cistern. Thrown in a deep, dark, sloshy pit.

Eventually, he is rescued, brought before the king, and the king gives him pardon and his backing–but just imagine spending days, maybe even weeks in a pit like that.

It messes with me. Does it mess with you?

Jeremiah 37

Can you imagine being put in prison? In a dungeon? In solitary confinement? For speaking truth.

Obviously Jeremiah comes out a little bit upset–at least that’s the way I read his tone when he asks questions of King Zedekiah. I don’t know what the court of the guard was that Jeremiah was placed in, but surely it was better than solitary confinement.

Anything would be better than being stuck with yourself.