Today we are beginning the next stage of an amazing historical journey. Back in January 2010, we began to read the Acts of the Apostles and learn about the birth of the early church to see how it fulfilled the Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus. As we join the journey again this Autumn in acts 18, the gospel has reached as far as Corinth. In the weeks to come, up to half term, we are going to journey with the Apostle Paul and his colleagues to discover some of the principles of ministry that will help us to share in that on-going mission in our generation.
The Purpose of Acts
Why did Luke write Acts? What purpose was the Spirit leading him to fulfil? The years have produced several different answers to those questions. The opening verses of Luke and Acts mention Theophilus as the recipient of Luke’s writings. Many think Theophilus was a Roman dignitary sympathetic to the Christian cause. Perhaps Luke was writing a defence of Christianity for this official during a time of persecution to show him there was nothing subversive or sinister about the followers of Jesus. The geographical framework of Acts, the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, lends credibility to this idea.
In 1:3 of his Gospel, Luke clearly states he is trying to make “an orderly account” of the events surrounding Jesus’ ministry.
It’s easy to think Luke’s Gospel focuses on Jesus while Acts focuses on the followers of Jesus who continued their Master’s work. But Acts 1:1, says “In my former book … I wrote about all Jesus began to do and teach…” Luke implies that Jesus continued to do and teach more, and that His story was incomplete where the Gospel of Luke ended. A careful reading of Acts makes it clear that Jesus remained the active, living, focus of Luke’s story. In 9:4 (NIV), Jesus spoke directly to Saul and asked, “Why do you persecute me?” Later, in the same chapter, Peter could say directly to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you” (9:34 NIV). In Acts 10, Christ made His will known to Peter concerning a ministry to the Gentiles. These are but three examples of Jesus’ vital involvement in the spread of the gospel in Acts. While Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus, there is no evidence anyone in the early church perceived Him as “gone” from their midst. Jesus healed, spoke, and directed the work of His disciples. Even when they preached, the disciples thought of Jesus as literally present in their preaching. They asked the listeners of those first sermons, not merely to believe facts about Jesus, but to encounter , the One who died, rose again, and lives forever. The ascension marked not Christ’s departure, but a transformation in the way Christ performs His ministry of salvation and grace. Acts is the continuing story of Jesus’ work but no longer bound by the limitations of time and space.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven he said, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).
1. God promises to bless those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel
This popular if misguided assumption is based on Genesis 12:3. It shows how vital it is we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. First, the original promise was made to Abram (that is Abraham) and no one else. Second, there is nothing in the promise to indicate God intended it be applied to Abraham’s physical descendants unconditionally, or in perpetuity. Third, in the New Testament we are told explicitly that the promises were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and in those who acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour. God’s blessings come by grace through faith, not by works or race (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Promise
Fulfilment
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ… There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:16, 28-29)
“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore… and through your seed all nations on earth will be blessed…” (Genesis 22:17-18)
I recently heard a story about a guy who drove his car into a ditch accidentally. It was quite an isolated location and there was no mobile phone reception to call the rescue services. Thankfully, a local farmer saw it happen and brought his horse to help pull the car back on to the road. The farmer hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, “Pull, Nellie, pull!” Buddy didn’t move. Once more the farmer hollered, “Pull, Nellie, pull!” Buddy didn’t respond. Then the farmer nonchalantly said, “Pull, Buddy, pull!” And the horse dragged the car out of the ditch. The motorist was very appreciative but he was also curious. He said “I am really grateful for your help. I just have one question: Why did you call your horse by the wrong name? The farmer said, “Oh, Buddy is blind – if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn’t even try.” Like “Buddy” we find motivation difficult if we think we are the only ones pulling. That’s why Jesus sent his disciples out in teams of two by two. It iciples out in teams of two. It’ motivated the car bacrove his car into a ditch. s so much easier and more fulfilling to serve in teams isn’t it?
In this last sermon in the series, Jesus and Women, we meet Priscilla the wife of Aquila. In Acts 18, we’re introduced to the ultimate ministry team – Priscilla and Aquila. They’re a married couple who are always mentioned together – three times in Acts 18, then in Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Timothy 4.
The Apostles had wives, and they took them with them when they preached (I Cor. 9:5), but their wives names are never mentioned in Scripture. Aquila’s wife, Priscilla, is.
Significantly their names only ever appear together which suggests they were a team. They were partners in ministry. Indeed Paul commends Aquila and Priscilla as his “fellow workers” who risked their lives for him. Even more significantly, in four of the five places where their names appear together, Priscilla is mentioned first. Let’s find out why. I want to introduce you to Priscilla the disciple, Priscilla the teacher and Priscilla the leader.
1. Priscilla the Disciple
“After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks… 18 Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken. 19 They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.” (Acts 18:1-4, 18-19)
In the year 52 A.D. the Roman emperor Claudius issued an edict expelling all Jews from the city of Rome. Suetonius, the Roman historian, says, some within the Jewish community were persecuting their Christian neighbours and causing considerable disturbance in the city. Claudius cared little about the reason for the trouble, and even less about who the guilty parties were. He knew they were Jews, and that was enough; so all Jews were uprooted from their homes and banished from Rome, the innocent along with the guilty.
This included a Jew named Aquila, who had migrated to Rome from the province of Pontus on the Black Sea, and he decided to migrate to the city of Corinth. By his side was his faithful wife, Priscilla. We do not know for certain whether she was Jewish or Roman, nor are we sure whether or not they were both Christians at the time. God in his providence uses their profession to connect Priscilla and Aquila with Paul. When Paul arrives from Athens, he makes contact with fellow tent makers, possibly to work with them to provide an income for himself as well. Paul worked so that he was not dependent on the churches he founded. Priscilla and Aquila were hospitable and invited Paul into their home and let him stay with them. Paul had confidence in them and invested his life in them. A lasting friendship was born between them. If Priscilla and Aquila did not know the Lord before, Paul’s stay would have left them in no doubt. No one could be anywhere near Paul for very long and not be affected by his passion for Jesus. Paul stayed with them for 18 months, no doubt instructing them in the gospel. Priscilla the disciple.
2. Priscilla the Teacher
“Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervourand taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.” (Acts 18:24-26)
Apollos sounds quite an impressive speaker. Aquila and Priscilla were deeply impressed with him, but they detected a serious flaw in his preaching. Tactfully they made no attempt to correct him in front of everyone at the synagogue. Nor did they try and put him straight over coffee after the service. They had a better way. They invited him home for lunch. I remember vividly one of the first evangelistic conversations I had as a young Christian. After it was over my friend, an older Christian, who’d been with me, took me to one side and said, “Well done, but actually the Holy Spirit is a person, not an ‘it’.” I never forgot. Perhaps it was at the kitchen table that Pricilla and Aquila led the conversation round to the mornings sermon, told Apollos what a blessing his ministry had been, asked him how he had become a believer, and then gently introduced the question of baptism.
Gently and lovingly, they explained how the gospel of the Lord Jesus was the fulfilment of the Hebrew scriptures he knew so well; That John’s baptism was a preparation for receiving Christ; and that Christian baptism was a natural consequence of receiving Christ. What Priscilla and Aquila did would not have been possible had they not been discipled by Paul for 18 months. What they learnt from Paul they passed on to Apollos. They multiplied themselves, just as Paul has done. The purpose of discipleship is not the accumulation of knowledge but multiplication. Disciples are meant to become disciplers. We were born to reproduce. That is why our mission comprises three words – win – build – send. We seek to win people to Christ, build them in the faith and send them to do what? Win people to Christ and build them in the faith in order to… It is only because Priscilla was a disciple that she could become a discipler of others. What Priscilla and Aquila did for Apollos is the norm. Every Christian teacher, whether it be the Apostle Paul or one of our pastors here, is accountable to the plain teaching of Scripture. If you are not sure about something you hear in a sermon, don’t just accept it. Check it out from the Word of God, and if you are still not sure, ask the preacher. The Berean Christians mentioned in Acts give us our model.
“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)
Priscilla the disciple became Priscilla the teacher. There is one more dimension to her ministry:
3. Priscilla the House Church Leader
“The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.” (1 Corinthians 16:19)
Given the nature of their trade, Priscilla and Aquila could be flexible where and when they earned their income from making tents. So they left their home in Corinth and followed Paul to Ephesus. He continued travelling while they settled down and opened their home, not only to Apollos but to other believers. In both Corinth and then in Ephesus, their home became a church, a house church. It seems at some point they decided to move back to Rome. Claudius was dead. Once again, their home became a meeting place for Christ followers.
“Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. 4 They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. 5 Greet also the church that meets at their house.” (Romans 16:3-5)
Given the way Paul affirms them by name, and mentions their role “co-workers” and specifically their bravery “they risked their lives for me” we may assume they became leaders within those churches. Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned one more time in the New Testament, in the last chapter of the last book the Apostle Paul wrote.
Their stay in Rome was short, probably because of the gruesome persecution of the Christians under Nero. They returned to Ephesus one final time. It had been sixteen years since Paul first met them at Corinth, and now he was in a Roman prison for the second time. His death at the hands of the emperor Nero was imminent, and he was writing the last paragraph of his long and fruitful life. “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus” (2 Timothy 4:19). Paul is thinking of his dear friends who were then back in Ephesus where Timothy was ministering. It was just a brief and simple greeting. But Paul wanted to be remembered to them in the last hours of his life. Imagine the impression that Priscilla and Aquila left in the mind of the apostle Paul. Their legacy was not the churches they founded in their homes but the model of ministry they demonstrated consistently – evangelism, discipleship and multiplication – winning, building and sending. We have seen Priscilla and Aquila the disciples, the teachers and the leaders. Tradition has it they eventually died in Ephesus as martyrs like Paul. Their blood was indeed the seed of the church. “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”
Lets pray.
With thanks to Jeff Strite and Timothy Henning for ideas and inspiration. Read their sermons on Priscilla at www.sermoncentral.com
“What do you do for Christ each day?”
a faithful Christian said.
And I replied, “I drive a truck
and fill the stores with bread.”
He said, “I know of your bread route
But that is not the thing.
I mean what do you do each day
For Jesus Christ the King?”
I said, “But I believe a man can
work in such a way
That selling bread is work for Christ
A sacrament each day.”
Once more the man inquired, “But sir,
If this is not unfair
What do you do for Christ each day,
Like witnessing and prayer?”
I said, “Work is my best witness
and selling bread to them
is like a prayer in Jesus’ name.
I drive the truck for Him!”
These Sundays through the Summer we are exploring the relationship between Jesus and Women: Women whose lives were transformed by Jesus. Some are well known by name. Others remain anonymous. Today we come to a lady with two names, Tabitha in Aramaic and Dorcas in Greek. A lady who did not meet Jesus personally but whose life was transformed by Jesus.
I hope you will be inspired and encouraged by her sweet giving spirit. Let’s consider her legacy, her loss and her Lord. Continue reading →
A reporter was interviewing an elderly gentleman on his 100th birthday. “What are you most proud of?” he asked. “Well, “said the man, “I don’t have an enemy in the world.” “What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!” said the reporter. “Yep,” added the old man, “outlived every last one of them.”
Kevin Higgin’s observes, “Sometimes I think it would be wonderful to live life without any enemies, and then I realize that one day I will when the Lord Jesus returns… But until then we might as well get used to the fact that not everyone is going to like us, and in fact, many will even hate us. We all go through a wide range of emotions when it comes to those who would do us harm or have ill feelings toward us. Nowhere is this range of emotions better expressed than in the Psalms. There were times when David prayed for his enemies. Other times he asked God to destroy them. Sometimes he prayed for wisdom and guidance in the face of his enemies, and that God would keep him in the way of righteousness. Sometimes David asked why he had to suffer when he was in the right? On other occasions, David praised the Lord for victory over them, for his protection from them, for God’s provision when pursued by them. Sometimes David realised God was using his enemies to punish him for his sins. It can be draining coping with someone who seems out to get us. We can easily harbour feelings of hatred or bitterness and anger against people who wrong us, conspire against us or spread lies about us. At times like this we need to remember what Jesus said about loving our enemies. For the truth is, unless we love our enemies, we will sooner or later run out of friends… How do you respond to opposition, strife or hostility? If you could find a way to overcome those who hate you, use you or abuse you, would you be interested? In today’s episode in the story of how God delivered his people from genocide in Esther 7, I believe the Lord gives us three simple principles that will help us too find victory over evil.
When you find yourself in deep trouble, when the rubber has hit the fan, it really does not matter whose fault it was does it? When you find yourself broke, bruised or beaten up, you are not desperate for a therapist to find out why are you? If you’re distressed, depressed or dejected, it’s not that important to understand the causes is it? All you really want is someone to help, someone to understand, someone to show they care. Someone to hold your hand. You see dying people, broken people, hurt people, used and abused people, don’t need theological explanations, or self-help tutorials, they need practical help, not next month, not next week, but now, today, right this minute. In our series of encounters between Jesus and women, today we meet a mother. A desperate mother.
A mother with a sick child. Imagine that you’ve carried this baby in your womb for nine long months. You’ve been through the excruciating pain of childbirth. You’ve nursed her, fed her, washed her, changed her. Watched her grow, take her first step, say her first word. You can still remember her first day of school. How pretty she looked in that dress. The first time you let her out of your sight. She’s your little girl. Your little girl.
And this was her little girl. Maybe she had been sick before.
A cold here. A headache there, maybe even the flu from time to time. But nothing ever like this before.
Sleepless in Susa : Things are not always as they seem (Esther 6:1-6:14)
Once upon a time a man was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. He was the lone survivor. Over several months, he constructed a shelter from pieces of wood salvaged from the wreck and from whatever he could find on the island. That little hut was the only protection he had from the elements. It was the only place he cold safeguard his meagre possessions. Upon returning from a lengthy search for food, he was distraught to find the hut engulfed in flames. He spent that night despondent, sleeping on the sand and feeling like God had completely abandoned him. He awoke early the next morning to discover a ship anchored off the island. A crew member stepped ashore and said with a smile, “We saw your smoke signal and came to rescue you.” What seemed to be destruction turned out to be deliverance. And such was the case with Mordecai. He had been shipwrecked by an undercurrent of anti-Semitism on an island of injustice. Now he stood in the shadow of death. Every hope that may have sheltered him had gone up in smoke. But, as we shall see, things are not always as they seem.
We’ve been studying the story of Esther the past few weeks. I don’t know about you, but I’m really beginning to see that God is sovereign. His plans are always providential. Throughout the entire story, although His name is never mentioned, the invisible hand of almighty God has been working behind the scenes on behalf of His people. It’s just like the promise found in Romans 8 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). In the story of Esther we see God working out his purposes for the benefit of those who love and follow Him. This evening I want us to discover five little things you should know about a great big God:
1. When all seems lost, it isn’t.
2. When no one seems to notice, God does.
3. When everything seems great, it’s not.
4. When nothing seems just, it is.
5. When God seems absent, he is truly present
(And I am enormously grateful to Charles Swindoll for 4/5s of this outline and the inspiration for much of the content).
Please make yourself comfortable. Now please cross your arms. Not hard was it? Glance down and notice the position of your hands and arms. O.K. Relax, unfold your arms. Now I’d like you to do it again. But this time, put the arm that was underneath on top and the arm that was on top underneath.
In other words, reverse your arms. Got it? I can see some of you are having difficulty. It wasn’t as easy to do this time, was it? Did it feel awkward? Uncomfortable? You really had to think about it. The first time it was natural, it didn’t require any thought, because that’s your preferred way of doing it.
We each cross our arms in a certain way, and no arm crossing technique is right or wrong, good or bad. They are just different. And arm crossing is typical of just about everything we think and do. That is my first point this morning.
1. Recognise in one another our unique God-given personalities
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.” (10:38-39)
Martha is feeling a little tense. You would too. Thirteen hungry men have just showed up unexpectedly.
Martha was grateful that the Master felt at home with them. It was an honour and privilege to host Jesus and his friends. But Martha was irritated as well. It was not that she did not have enough food, but that her sister was not helping her serve. Mary and Martha had very different personalities. Mary’s tranquil composure vividly contrasting with Martha’s busy fussiness. Mary was totally absorbed as she listened to the Master. She eagerly drank in his every word. The uppermost question in her mind was “How can I enjoy him the most? What can I learn from him today?”
As a young kid I used to read the newspaper every day, or at least the cartoon section. The Daily Mail still carries a one line Snoopy cartoon. It became my thought for the day through my teenage years. As I grew up, however, I moved on to more intellectual content like the Far Side cartoons of Gary Larson (I have the two volume definitive collection by the way). One of my other favourite cartoons is Calvin and Hobbes. On one occasion Calvin says, “You know what the problem is with the universe?… There’s no toll-free customer service hot line for complaints! That’s why things don’t get fixed. If the Universe had any decent management, we’d get a full refund if we weren’t completely satisfied!” Hobbes objects: “But hey, the universe is free.” To which Calvin retorts: “See, that’s another thing. They should have a cover charge and keep out all the riffraff.” If we’re honest, we may wish that the riffraff would indeed just go away or be punished.
For example, you may have been pleased to learn a few weeks ago of the capture and extra-judicial killing of Osama bin Laden. He got what he deserved. You may have expressed quiet satisfaction at the arrest of the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, removed unceremoniously from his First Class seat aboard an Air France jet about to leave New York. You may even have smiled gleefully at the exposure of a well-known footballer who took out a High Court injunctions to hide his private life. But he couldn’t suppress Twitter or silence the MP who used Parliamentary Privilege to name him. Or you may be glad that Ratko Mladic has finally been arrested for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. You may feel a long drawn out trial in the Hague before the War Crimes Tribunal is too good for him. You may be disappointed that the lawyers seem more concerned about his human rights and his failing health than justice for the 7,500 men and boys he executed following the capture of Srebrenica. We tend to be tough on people when they do things that upset us. We clamour for immediate retribution. We cry to the God of justice to strike them down. But we also know all too well, how desperately we ourselves need God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.
In our series on Jesus and women, we have come to the controversial story in John 8. So controversial it does not appear in all the early manuscripts. It’s a highly charged story about morality, justice and mercy, law and grace. The story can be broken into three:
Confrontation: Why Stone Throwing is so Popular (8:1-6a)
Conviction: Why Stone Throwing is so Dangerous (8:6b-9)
Compassion: Why Stone Throwing is so Unnecessary (8:10-11)
A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. “House,” in French, is feminine = “la maison.” “Pencil,” in French, is masculine = “le crayon.” One puzzled student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?” The teacher did not know, and the word wasn’t in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups by gender, and asked them to decide whether “computer” should be a masculine or feminine noun. They were required to give four reasons. The men’s group decided that computers are definitely of the feminine gender (“la computer”),
No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval; and
As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories.
The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (“le computer”),
In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;
They can store a lot of data but can’t think for themselves
They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem; and
As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you’d waited a little longer, you could have got a better model.
I remember when Rachel our daughter wanted to play football at school she found it difficult to get picked for the team. The assumption then at least was that boys played football, while girls played net ball. But as you know sexism on the playing field is tame compared to the gender discrimination women face in career opportunities, in promotion prospects, in pay differentials, in the stereotype roles expected of both men and women, even within such a liberated and enlightened society as ours. One women executive said, “To get anywhere in the corporate world a woman has to do the same work a man would do in the same job, but she must do it twice as well.” Then she added wryly, “Fortunately, that is not difficult.” Another woman said, “We deserve more pay than men. After all, anything Fred Astaire could do, Ginger Rogers could do backwards and on high heels.” But that all changed for me when Michael was born, or at least that’s the impression some people gave when they asked how I felt to have a son and heir… My reply to that one was “I already had three heirs but was delighted to have a fourth.” It even happens in churches. I sometimes hear a speaker bemoan the fact that women outnumber men in many churches. Usually this is seen as evidence that the church is failing to relate effectively to men. Sometimes I wonder whether it may actually be an encouraging sign of something very different. Look at it from the opposite perspective, and ask why women, given a free choice of faiths, are attracted particularly to Christianity? Perhaps women have discovered something men haven’t. How do we follow Jesus without embarrassing God? By emulating the radical way Jesus Christ treated women and men. This morning I want us to discover what it means to be created in God’s image, both male and female. And we will find out by seeing how Jesus related to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Here we discover what Jesus thinks about three issues – Gender Equality, Complementary Roles, and Shared Ministry.
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Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions