Category Archives: Acts

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Low Expectations of God

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Acts 12
Meditation: Acts 12:16

Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Shift Your Focus… I hope you see the humor in what is an otherwise somber story. James, the brother of John, has been executed. Now Peter has been imprisoned and it is his head that is on the chopping block. The megalomaniac King Herod is the culprit, and he knows that killing Peter will gain him the support of the Jewish leaders. In reality, there is nothing funny about this situation. This is as serious as a heart attack, especially for Peter.

But God decides to have a little fun in the midst of all this drama. He sends his angel to deliver Peter from prison, yet the night before his likely execution, amazingly Peter is sound asleep. He is in such a deep slumber that the angel has to whack him on the side to wake him up and guide him by the hand like a little kid past the guards and out the gate. Even then, Peter assumes he is having a dream.

Once outside the prison gates, Peter realizes that he has become answered prayer. So he goes to the home where the church was “earnestly praying” for his deliverance. When the servant girl, Rhoda, opens the door and sees Peter, she is so excited that answered prayer is standing right there in front of her she forgets to let him in. He continues to stand out on the street, a fugitive on the lam from justice, waiting for a church that has been praying for his release to see that their prayers have been answered.

When Rhoda tries to explain that answered prayer is knocking at the door, the believers think she has lost her mind. They disbelieve the very answer they have been earnestly and constantly praying for. Finally, they hear Peter pounding at the door and let him in. And they were astonished that God had actually answered their prayers.

You have probably done that, too! I sure have. There are things for which we earnestly pray, yet deep in our hearts are convinced we will never see the answer. I am glad that at times God’s mercifully overrides our low expectations and sends answered prayer to knock on our door.

Are your prayers wrapped in low expectations? You pray, but you don’t really believe God will answer with a provision of healing for your broken body or the salvation of a wayward child or deliverance from a dark habit or the financial miracle you desperately need or a spiritual breakthrough into a greater abundance of God’s grace. Unwrap those requests, remove your low expectations, and listen up—you may just hear some answered prayer knocking on your door today.

Ask boldly, expect greatly and pray unceasingly—God still answers prayer!

 “Not failure, but low aim, is crime.” ~James Russell Lowell

Prayer… Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!??

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Long-Winded Preachers

Today’s Reflection:

“Paul was preaching, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight…Paul continued talking until dawn, then he left.” (Acts 20:7))

“Paul was preaching, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight…Paul continued talking until dawn, then he left.” (Acts 20:7)
I used to be a big fan of the twenty-minute sermon. I still am, in fact—when someone else is preaching, that is. But the longer I preach, the longer I preach, if you get my drift. After many years of pastoral ministry, now twenty-minutes is just a good introduction. I’m joking of course—my intros are no more than eighteen minutes?

Few aspects of the preacher’s preaching are more prominently discussed than the length of his sermons. In seminary, we are taught how to “get ‘er done” in fifteen minutes or so, twenty minutes at the most, and violating that rule of thumb is a good indication that our sermon preparation had been sloppy. A friend of mine says if you want to preach a twenty-minute sermon, prepare twenty hours; a forty-minute message will take you ten hours of prep time, and an hour-long sermon means you’ve spent about twenty minutes preparing.

In my earlier pastoral ministry I worked years with a phenomenal preacher. But he was an hour-long kind of guy. He had great stuff, he just didn’t know how to bring the plane in for a landing, so to speak. He’d get to the end of his message, and then just circle the airport looking for a spot to bring ‘er down. If he would have cut that hour in half, his sermons would have gone from good to great. His preaching kind of reminds me of the story I heard about a man who went to the dentist to have a tooth removed. He asked the dentist what the cost for removing his tooth would be, and the dentist told him it would be $90. The guy told the dentist that 90 bucks seemed like a lot of money for a few seconds work. The dentist said, “If it’d make you feel better, I can pull the tooth out real slow!”

Well, I am here to defend the long-winded sermon—since I now qualify as long-winded. And I am in good company. Paul, the greatest theologian in the New Testament, perhaps in human history, preached so long that a young man in the audience named Eutychus fell asleep while sitting on a window sill and fell three stories to his death. Amazingly, that didn’t put a damper on the service. Paul, without skipping a beat, went downstairs, healed the man, then came back upstairs and talked from midnight until dawn. You go Paul!

Here’s the deal: It’s not the length of the sermon that makes it good or bad, it’s the content of the message…it’s the passion of the preacher…it’s the heart of the shepherd out of which the sermon flows that makes it effective or not. If you read this entire passage in Acts 20, you get some great insights into the heart of Paul, the long-winded preacher:

  • Paul was full of faith and confidence in the Lord—“don’t worry, he’s alive…and the young man was taken home unhurt.” (Acts 20:11-12)
  • Paul earned people’s respect through his suffering for the Gospel—“I have endured the trials that came to me…” (Acts 20:19)
  • Paul was fearless in his preaching—“I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear.” (Acts 20:20)
  • Paul was Christ-centered and cross-focused—“I have had one message…repent from sin and turn to God…the work of telling others the Good news about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:21 & 24)
  • Paul was purposeful—“My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work the Lord Jesus assigned to me.” (Acts 20:24)
  • Paul was faithful to God—“I declare today that I have been faithful.” (Acts 20:26)
  • Paul passionately protected his flock from danger—“Guard God’s people and feed and shepherd God’s flock…watch out…” (Acts 20:28 & 31)
  • Paul was pure in his motives—“I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes…I have worked with my own hands to supply my own needs.” (Acts 20:33-34)
  • Paul practice what he preached—“I have been a constant example…” (Acts 20:35)
  • Paul was selfless—“I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard.” (Acts 20:35)

It’s no wonder that when he had finished speaking and was getting ready to leave, “they all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye.” (Acts 20:37)

How long is the perfect sermon, you wonder? When the preacher exhibits the same qualities that we see in Paul, his sermon can be a long as it takes!

Something To Think About
“I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” ~Richard Baxter

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Not One Day Sooner

Read Acts 27

“Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and
indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.”
(Acts 27:24)

Food For Thought… Paul was in a pickle—that was not usual for Paul. Because of his bold and uncompromising witness to faith in Christ, he had at times found himself in the middle of rioting crowds, in front of hostile courts, bound hand and foot in a stockade, and on the receiving end of a good old fashion stoning, just to name a few.

Now he was traveling by ship to Rome to stand trial before Caesar and make his case for Christianity. Due to some unfavorable winds, the going was slow and the season changed, and the ship got caught in a hurricane. Day-after-day the ship and its cargo, both human and goods, were at the mercy of this monster storm, and it became increasingly apparent that the ship was going to go down and they all were going to die.

Then we have these incredible words that the angel of the Lord spoke to Paul in the night: “Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.”

Paul’s response was to take God at his word and encourage the fear stricken passengers, “Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island.” (Acts 27:25-26)

Paul understood something that should give you and me great comfort and strength. He knew that he would not die a day sooner, nor live a day longer for that matter, until he had fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. God’s purpose was for Paul to preach the Gospel in Rome before the court of Caesar. A little hurricane was not going to prevent that!

God has a purpose for our lives, too, and nothing, except our willful rejection of his plan, will take us off course from the fulfillment of his Divine purpose for our lives. Not sickness, accidents, financial hardship, hostility, failure, rejection—not even death.

David wrote in Psalm 139:16, “Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” What that means is that God knows very well every one of your days even before they come to pass. He knows exactly how many you will have, and what each one will contain. He is the One in charge of you.

Take courage, my friend. Your life is in God’s hands. Nothing can happen to you except by permission of God. And the day of your death will not come a day sooner than your gracious Father will allow, and that will not be until his purpose for you in this life has been completed.

Then a new purpose will begin—and this time, it will never end!

Prayer… Father, how comforting to know that every one of my days has been planned out and ordained by you—even the one’s yet ahead. You know how many days have been allotted to me, and I will not die a day sooner than by what your plan allows. I will therefore live my days to the fullest and strive to fulfill your purposes in each one.

One More Thing… “We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord’s help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without Him.” —John Newton

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Just A Minute

Read Acts 26

Then King Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost
persuade me to become a Christian.”
(Acts 26:28)

Food For Thought… Paul was on trial for his life. It wouldn’t be the last time, either. In this instance, he was holding forth before Governor Festus and King Arippa, giving an impassioned defense of his faith and the veracity of Christianity. Paul didn’t have much time, nor did he have a particularly friendly audience.

None of that really mattered to Paul. It didn’t matter if the conditions were perfect; in fact, they never really were. It didn’t matter if he was speaking before this majestic court or with the untold numbers of nameless folk he had met in his many travels. (Acts 26:22) It didn’t matter if he was able to stay in one city for many months to lay down his Christian theology, or if he just had a minute to proclaim the story of his conversion to a listening ear. Paul had a strategy: Wherever he was, no matter what his audience, whether big or small, friendly or hostile, Paul was going to get a word in for Jesus Christ. In this case, he made the appeal to King Agrippa to place his faith in Christ.

The conditions for sharing the Gospel were never perfect for Paul, but they were always right. And that is true for you and me as well. If we wait for the perfect circumstances before we are able to share our faith, we will be endlessly waiting. If, however, we will be ready at all times to get a good word in for Jesus Christ, like Paul, we will find opportunity aplenty.

Perhaps a good exercise for you would be to think through in detail your personal testimony of faith in Christ to the point where you could share it when the opportunity arises. It would also be good to get well acquainted with the plan of salvation, complete with Bible verses, so you can be ready to lead someone to faith at any time. There are many good pamphlets available to use as a resource, or even to keep with you for that special moment. My personal favorite is Billy Graham’s “Steps To Peace With God.” It is a simple, thorough and compelling explanation of how to receive Christ.

An equally helpful exercise would be to think through the “Cliff Notes” version of both your testimony and plan of salvation. What if you had just a minute to share? Could you do it? If you will be ready with the one-minute plan, you will suddenly find your available minutes have been generously increased.

Paul didn’t have much time in this case, but he was ready, and he got the job done. I trust that we will develop the same strategic mindset as Paul, and begin to look for opportunities every day to share the greatest story every told.

Even if we have just a minute!

Prayer… Lord, I want to be ready to share the reason for the hope I have in you—even if it is just a minute that presents itself. Help me to sharpen my testimony. Keep me ever mindful to look for open doors throughout my day. And give me the privilege to tell some person about you today.

One More Thing… “The preaching that this world needs most is the sermons in shoes that are walking with Jesus Christ.” —D.L. Moody

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Dead Or Alive

Read Acts 25

The Jews had some questions against Paul about their own
religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died,
whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
(Acts 25:19)

Food For Thought… That is really the crux of the argument for, or against, Christianity, isn’t it? Is Jesus dead and buried—end of story! Or did he die but rise from the grave, alive forevermore?

Of course, we who follow Christ stake our claim on the latter. That is the crux of Christianity. We will go to the death for that belief, because it is all that matters. As the great historian Jaroslav Pelikan so simply yet profoundly put it,

“If Christ is risen—nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

An African Muslim converted to Christianity. Some of his friends asked him, “Why have you become a Christian?” He answered, “Well, its like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive. Which one would you ask which way to go?”

Jesus is either dead or alive. If he is dead, then our Christian faith is worse than worthless because it is history’s worst fraud. But if Jesus is alive, it is history’s greatest miracle by miles. If Jesus is alive, we ought to ask him which way to go, and then drop everything to follow him. If Jesus is alive, we ought to make him the core of our lives, the purpose of our existence, and the passion of our every breath. If Jesus is alive, he must become the foundation of our faith, the reason for our hope, and the source of our love. The Apostle Peter, who witnessed his bodily resurrection from the tomb, said,

“Through Jesus, you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. (I Peter 1:21-22)

Is he dead or alive? I am banking my eternal existence that he is alive!

Prayer… Jesus, you are the Risen One, and I will follow you with all my being—heart, mind, soul and strength.

One More Thing… “Without the hope of eternal life, this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” —Count Bismarck

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Spiritual Conversations

Read Acts 24

And after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who
was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the
faith in Christ. Now as he reasoned about righteousness,
self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid
and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a
convenient time I will call for you.”
(Acts 24:24-25)

Food For Thought… The Apostle Paul was arguably the greatest evangelist Christianity has ever known. Yet he didn’t win them all—Governor Felix being a prime example.

Then again, winning everybody to Christ wasn’t Paul’s job, and it isn’t your job either. Only the Holy Spirit can bring conviction to the human heart. In this case, the Holy Spirit did his job: he took Paul’s words and produced deep conviction in Felix, whom verse 25 says, “was afraid.”

And only the person with whom faith is being shared can open the door of their heart to the truth. In this case, Felix didn’t. Verse 25 says that he found the demands of Christianity inconvenient, so he put off making a decision. And as far as we know, Felix never did cross over into faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul’s job was simply to initiate spiritual conversations with people when opportunities arose, and then leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. That’s what your job is, and mine too. We are to look for opportunities to have spiritual conversations with people, and when those opportunities arise, we are to seize them, faithfully share what we know, and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit.

That takes a lot of pressure off, doesn’t it! You don’t have to pry open any evangelistic doors. The Holy Spirit will get those doors open for you. All you have to do is simply walk through them when they open. Nor do you have to close the deal. Only the Holy Spirit can produce saving conviction, and only the person who hears the message can open their heart to saving faith. It is not up to you to make the sale.

All you have to do is tell the story. All you have to do is to speak as a satisfied customer to what Christ has done in your life. All you have to do is to tell what you know—which may be a whole lot, or it might be very little. Just share what you know under the guidance of the Spirit in those moments of divine appointment and watch what God will do.

If I were a betting man, I would bet you that a door opens today where you and I will have opportunity to initiate a spiritual conversation.

What do you say we seize that moment to share what we know!

Prayer… Father, keep me alert to those moments today where the door will open to a conversation with someone about the greatest story ever told—the story of your saving love through Jesus Christ.

One More Thing… “Jesus Christ did not say, ‘Go into the world and tell the world that it is quite right.’”— C.S. Lewis