Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

We have just completed our journey through the Acts of the Apostles.  We tackled the journey from Jerusalem to Rome in three parts:

Acts 1 to 9:22

Acts 9:23 to 17:34

Acts 18 to 28

How fantastic to be reminded of the continuing ministry of the ascended Lord Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit – transforming lives; extending the Kingdom of God through the known world of the 1st century.  From Jerusalem, to northern Palestine, through Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and Rome.

And how encouraging and challenging that the ministry of the Lord Jesus continues today, transforming lives and extending the Kingdom through the Holy Spirit.  All followers of Jesus are caught up in this continuing story.

For our Bible readings, in the third part of the series, we used the video Acts: Dramatic Presentation of the Birth of Christianity (Visual Bible, NIV).  This is a first-class production and was very helpful in assisting the congregations enter into the world of the early church.  Here is a trailer of the video:

If you have appropriated the peace dividend, how then are we to live?  That’s the very practical question addressed in the next chapter of God the Peacemaker by Graham Cole:

Chapter Eight: Life Between the Cross and the Coming

How should followers of the Lord Jesus live?  By faith.  And our author gives an excellent exposition of what walking by faith, and not by sight, looks like.  Living by faith means:

• always trusting God, including in the age to come
• living a life of love (Gal 5:6)
• the opposite to living by fear and by sight (Matt 8:26; 2 Cor 5:7)
• giving our total allegiance to the One who won our redemption (1 Cor 6:19f)
• responding to Christ’s love in a “self-donating lifestyle” (eg. Phil 1:13-26). Simply put, Christ is worth it!
• living as a true servant (“worthy of the Gospel”), exemplified in the Lord Jesus’ “great stooping both in incarnation and atonement” (Phil 2:5-11)
• being prepared to suffer for Christ (2 Cor 11:23-28; 1 Pt 4:12-16).  This is the reality for so many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world
• attracting spiritual opposition from the demonic.  The devil has not disappeared; he is behind human hostility to the gospel and is to be resisted (1 Pt 5:8f).  The armour against his attacks are defensive (shield of faith, breastplate of righteousness, helmut of salvation) and offensive (the Word of God).  Prayer is crucial.  It needs to be specific and gospel focussed (Eph 6:14-20)
• living now, in the reality of what we will be – “Spirit-impelled resurrection life.”  In the most practical of ways, this means worshipping the Lord through the offering of our whole person as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2).  The individual believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20) as is the corporate Body (1 Cor 3:16-17) and that’s what needs to be displayed – not a physical Temple.

Living by faith (I think of it as being ‘up close and personal with Jesus, as we walk around the Sea of Galilee together’) means living as Kingdom people.  Graham zeroes in on two of the beatitudes in Matt 5-7: ‘blessed are the merciful’ and ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’  When we are ‘shalom-bringers’ we are acting like God in character.  And active peacemaking will be in sync with justice – reconciliation requires that wrongs are confronted and acknowledged.

As those who have appropriated the peace dividend (ie. those who are caught up in God’s reclamation project), we have a story to tell the world.  And it is undertaken by:

• evangelists, gifted by the risen Christ and equipped by His Spirit (Eph 4:11-13) to tell the story.  Our author gives a succinct account of the gospel content and proclamation approaches in the Acts of the Apostles.
• witnesses.  Every believer is not gifted to be an evangelist but every believer has a story to tell – of God’s ways and deeds.
• apologists.  Again, every believer has the task of answering questions raised by the gospel (1 Pt 3:13-16).  And we are to do so with gentleness and respect – if there is offence its source must be the gospel itself and not our manner!

Life between the Cross and the Coming is a life lived in the Spirit - the great applier of our salvation.  Graham provides a helpful overview on “filling” as seen in Luke/Acts.  And then in considering the Spirit’s role (in relation to the Trinity), he comments:

“…the Holy Spirit…uses our evangelism, witness, apology, shalom-making and mercy-showing…to bring to fruition the divine plan.”

This is a great chapter, linking biblical theology with helpful historical theology examples, with a focus on the way we live out our daily lives now, in this age.  There will be wonderful benefit in chewing on the contents of this chapter with our Bibles open, and hearts submissive to the Spirit’s transforming work.

Death.  It’s confronting.  LIfe is precious and it hangs by a slender thread.  That’s how Adrian Warnock, author of Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything introduces:

Chapter 12: Send a Resurrection, O Lord!

The great news of course is that “God is an expert in revival.”  What happens when someone turns to Jesus in faith?  A spiritually dead person is united with a life-giving Person.

And with this introduction, Adrian focuses on revivals – when the church en masse experiences more fully the change made possible by the resurrection.  Aussie Stuart Piggin is quoted on the nature of revival:

“It is a powerful intensification by Jesus of the Holy Spirit’s normal activity.”

This is a terrific chapter by Adrian.  He comments:

• ‘revival’ is available to all Christians individually – it is quantitatively, but not qualitatively different, to our normal experience
• both through the Acts of the Apostles and church history, the Church has grown in fits and starts
• since Acts is Scripture, “it must have a role in forming our doctrine and practice” – right on!
• Acts is a “model account of how church mission should ideally proceed”
• the pattern of revival in Acts is also seen in church history:
  • period of intense emphasis on prayer in the church
  • dramatic work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers
  • inevitable impact on those outside
• whenever a group of people experience a revival, prayer and the Word of God are emphasised.

And these are the subjects of the next two chapters in Raised with Christ.

We are currently preaching through the final chapters of The Book of Acts in our morning congregations.  ’Resurrection’ features so strongly through all of Acts and especially in these final chapters.  For example:

Acts 23:6.. “…I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.”

Acts 24:15  ”…and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

Acts 25:19  ”…and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.”

Acts 26:22f  ”…and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.  I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen – that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to His own people and to the Gentiles.”

Jesus is LIFE by =Nilopher on deviantART

Chapter Eight: What did the resurrection ever do for us?

I remember the first time I read the Acts of the Apostles in one sitting. I came away with two ‘R’ words embedded in my mind: Repentance and Resurrection.

And the author of Raised with Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything, Adrian Warnock is also impacted by the importance of Jesus’ resurrection in Acts.  As he rightly says, “each sermon [in Acts]…highlights a particular aspect of what the resurrection accomplished.”  So let’s make a quick journey with Adrian:

• Acts 1:1-2: this is the continuing story of Jesus – the risen Lord.  The fearful disciples were transformed from ‘fear paralysis’ to bold proclaimers of the Good News through the resurrection and coming of the Spirit
• Acts 2 (Pentecost sermon): Peter told the crowd not only that Jesus had been raised but also the implications of that resurrection for them
• Acts 3:15f, 26 (healing of lame man): Healing through faith in Jesus, who is alive.  And direct link between the resurrection and salvation
• Acts 4:11f: Jesus is the most important being in the universe – the “capstone”.  Salvation by union with Him alone.
• Acts 5:30f: it is the risen Jesus who grants us repentance and forgiveness
• Acts 7: risen Jesus gives Stephen remarkable confidence in the face of martyrdom
• Acts 9:4ff, 20: resurrection, Saul’s transformation and commissioning directly linked
• Acts 10:39ff (Peter/Cornelius): Resurrection, commissioning, proclamation
• Acts 13:37ff: Resurrection and salvation – Paul declares that salvation is more than forgiveness – we are freed from the power and consequences of sin
• Acts 17:2f (Thessalonica): OT record, cross, resurrection
• Acts 17:8, 30f (Athens): resurrection linked with truth of gospel; our resurrection and future judgment of world

Ever read Acts cover to cover?  It is not only a great read but contains life transforming truths. Jesus is risen and that changes everything.  We’ll be looking at the last part of Acts (chpts 18 to 28) at Deep Creek on Sunday mornings, beginning on May 9.  Join us and/or download the messages.

Jesus is risen!