Times of Refreshing

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 20, 2021

Times of Refreshing 

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

Acts 3:19

Read: Acts 3:17-26

I noticed yesterday that Peter was holding the crowd gathered by the Beautiful Gate responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. Five times he used the pronoun, you, in accusing the crowd, such as in verse 15, “You killed the author of life . . .” I don’t think Peter knew if any of them were actually in the crowd calling for Barabbas to be released. Rather, I think Peter was demonstrating their corporate guilt by being a part of a sinful people. We rehearse this truth when we share in our corporate prayer of confession as a part of our liturgy for Holy Communion.

Peter goes on to tell the crowd that even though they acted out of ignorance, they no longer have any excuse. The power of the Risen Savior has been demonstrated before them in the healing of the lame man. Now is the time to repent, to turn from their sinful ways, and turn to God. In making this point, Peter again stresses the continuity of God’s redemptive story by reminding the crowd that their prophets had foretold of the coming of God’s Messiah, and of his promised coming again in Final Victory. We will see in tomorrow’s reading that another two thousand men accepted Peter’s invitation to new life in Jesus.

My Takeaway: Repentance is not a one-off event. We are called daily to turn away from working out the meaning of our lives apart from God, and to seek the life in Christ as our way of life.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

It Is Jesus’ Name

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 19, 2021

It Is Jesus’ Name

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

Acts 3:15

Read: Acts 3:11-16

A Bishop complained that he was not having the same impact in his ministry as did the first apostles. He said, “Everywhere Paul went, there was a riot. Everywhere I go, they serve tea.” What was true of Paul was also true of Peter and John. They dared to venture into uncharted waters where all they had going for them was faith in Jesus. Their actions remind me of a quote from Corrie ten Boom, “You will never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”

When questioned about the crippled man’s healing, Peter immediately attributed the healing to faith in Jesus. Peter was doing ministry beyond his power, in places well beyond where you would expect a fisherman to stand and preach. When the people saw something as astonishing as the lame man being healed, Peter seized the moment to proclaim the power of faith in the resurrected Jesus.

Notice the continuity in Peter’s preaching. He is serving the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Peter actually quoted a passage from Exodus 3, which Jesus also had quoted. The context for Peter naming the patriarchs of Judaism was Moses standing before the burning bush and receiving an assignment from God to go and set God’s people free.  Peter was proclaiming that God was doing it again. He was continuing the story of redemption by setting the people free from sin and death through faith in the resurrected Jesus.

My Takeaway: I am writing this meditation on the morning after Cheryl and I visited a church to partake of Holy Communion. In the service, we affirmed our faith with the words of the Nicene Creed, which includes our entire theological heritage. In today’s reading, I am reminded of the importance of our holding onto the whole story of Jesus, or as Peter put it, “You handed him over to be killed, you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him.” (v. 13-16)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Peter (Jesus) Heals a Lame Beggar

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 18, 2021

Peter (Jesus) Heals a Lame Beggar

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Acts 3:6

Read: Acts 3:1-10

Three things caught my attention in today’s passage. First, Peter and John looked intently at the lame beggar. They told the man to look at them. Then after speaking to the man, Peter took the man by the hand and helped him up. Only when honoring the Centurion’s request did Jesus heal someone from afar. Otherwise, Jesus was up close and personal. So also, Peter and John.   

I recall participating in a district clergy team meeting on church revitalization. We had been meeting for about forty-five minutes when I observed, “We’ve been here quite a while, and the name of Jesus has yet to be spoken. If we aren’t going to talk about Jesus, I don’t expect we are going to revitalize many churches.” Peter was very clear. He wasn’t offering a new program, he was offering Jesus: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (v. 6)

The desktop background on my computer is a photograph I took standing in front of the Church of All Nations and looking across the Kidron Valley to the Beautiful Gate to the Temple in Jerusalem. The healing of the lame beggar was outside of the Temple. This reminds me of a sign I saw at a church. As you drive out of the parking lot there is a sign post: The Church Has Left the Building. The healing of the lame beggar was proclaiming a new center for the people of God: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

My Takeaway: I believe the true strength of a local church is not so much what happens on the church campus. Rather, it is in what is happening in the name of Jesus outside of its campus.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

New Community

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 15, 2021

New Community 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

Read: Acts 2:42-47

As we continue in Acts, we will see how this New Community modeled life in the Kingdom of God as people on The Way. At least six times in Acts the Christians are called people on The Way – as in people seeking the life in Christ as their Way of life.

I believe the verse quoted above gives us the essentials for our life together as God’s New Community of Believers. We are called to be devoted to the Word of God, to building deep and abiding friendships within our community, to frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and to a life of prayer. I pray these truly become the hallmarks of our churches.

Again, quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

My Takeaway: I believe the essentials for our life together, taken from the verse quoted above, are the antidote for cheap grace. By God’s grace may we cling to this antidote.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

What Shall We Do?

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 14, 2021

What Shall We Do?

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts 2:41

Read: Acts 2:37-41

In Acts, Luke has continued the message he began in the Gospel of Luke where there is a gathering momentum of Jesus calling Israel to repentance. The closer Jesus got to his Passover destiny in Jerusalem, the more he confronts the sins of Israel. The nation was forgetting the poor and oppressed and had turned to violence instead of peace. Called to be a light to the world, Israel has become just like her neighbor states. Israel ignored Jesus’ call for repentance, and thus Jesus took upon himself the sin of Israel as he went to the cross.

Peter recalled all of this on Pentecost and announced that while it was too late for the nation, it is was not too late for the individuals. They could call on the name of Jesus and be saved from sin and death. Three thousand heeded the call on that Pentecost morning and formed the New Community of Believers.

In these pandemic days, when church attendance is through live streaming and Holy Communion is drive-through, we are in danger of COVID-19 ushering in cheap grace as a way of life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that cheap grace includes Communion without confession, which is exactly what many churches are offering today.

My Takeaway: Bonhoeffer also noted, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.” These words inspire me continuously pray, “O Lord, I acknowledge You to be by Creator and my God. I render You the homage of my being and my life. I am not my own, I am Yours. By creation and redemption, I am Yours.”

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Foundation of Christian Theology

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

 January 13, 2021

The Foundation of Christian Theology

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Acts 2:36

 Read: Acts 2:22-36

The very core, the foundation of Christian theology, is the cross of Jesus. Peter makes that point very clear in his Pentecost sermon. Peter is revealing to his listeners that the death of Jesus was not a random act of violence. Peter shows that Jesus the Messiah confronted evil at the place where the greatest of human systems would reveal their corruption. The Romans prided themselves on their system of justice. The Jews prided themselves on their Temple and priestly system. The crucifixion of Jesus revealed the Roman system was rotten at its core and that the Temple system was hollow at its heart.

Peter then shows that in the resurrection of Jesus, evil was defeated. No longer does evil have the ultimate power of death. God, not evil, gets the last word. We have seen that Acts reveals God’s plan of redemption as a continuing story. God’s plan of salvation did not begin at the birth of Jesus. Peter reaches back to the Old Testament prophet Joel as well the Psalms of David, 16, 110 and 132, to show God has been working all along to redeem His people.

My Takeaway: This affirmation of God’s continuous action to redeem His people, inspires me to seek a greater awareness of what God is doing in my life today. I pray asking God, by His grace, to help me be aware that He is working in me, giving me the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. (Philippians 2:13)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Glorious Day of The LORD

 Meditations on The Acts of the Apostles

January 12, 2021

Glorious Day of The LORD

And everyone who calls

    on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Acts 2:21

Read: Acts 2:14-21

The prophets use the word LORD to avoid saying the covenant name of God, YHWH. As Peter quotes the prophet Joel, he seamlessly substitutes Lord, a name for Jesus, when referring to the glorious day of the Lord. I am reminded of the affirmation in the Nicene Creed,

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father.

A few weeks ago, we were in the Season of Advent, a time of looking forward and preparing for the coming again of Jesus in final victory. In first century Israel, the people believed the last days foretold by the prophets, like Daniel and Joel, were close at hand. Peter begins his sermon my asserting they were in fact living in the last days as God was beginning something new.

Joel’s words are stunning. God will pour out His Spirit on all people: sons and daughters, young men, old men, men and women will receive God’s Spirit. No one is left out! Prophesy, as the word is used here, does not mean telling what will happen in the future, rather it is as Luke put it in verse 11, “we hear them declaring the wonders of God.” In Acts 21:8-9, Luke includes evidence of Joel and Peter’s proclamation, “. . . we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.”

My Takeaway: Every Christian has received God’s Spirit and has been commissioned to declare the wonders of God.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.