Recap

So far in Acts, we've read through the introduction, the disciples' time in Jerusalem, the church spreading into Samaria, and then started the missionary trips to the ends of the earth. Acts, a sequel to Luke's gospel, explores the early church's birth and growth. Jesus commissioned his disciples to spread the good news from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

After his ascension, the Holy Spirit came as wind and fire, making believers God's new temples. Empowered to speak in different languages, the disciples amazed the crowd, and Peter led over 3,000 to salvation. The church was born, and believers lived in community, sharing all they had.

Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple, explaining that God’s presence now dwelt in his people. This led to conflict with the priests, who warned them to stop preaching. The believers prayed for boldness and shared their possessions. As struggles arose, the Apostles appointed seven men to manage daily tasks, and the church grew.

Stephen, one of the seven, performed miracles but was accused of blasphemy. He highlighted how Israel had rejected God’s chosen, including Jesus. This enraged the crowd who stoned him. His death triggered persecution, forcing Christians to spread the gospel to Judea and Samaria.

Philip helped spread the gospel in Samaria and was led by God to assist an Ethiopian man with scripture. Meanwhile, Saul, on his way to arrest Christians, was blinded by Jesus, healed by Ananias, and filled with the Holy Spirit. He began preaching immediately, despite opposition. The disciples in Jerusalem were initially wary of Saul, but Barnabas vouched for him.

Peter received a vision about not calling what God made clean, unclean. He preached to Gentiles, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. This led to the Gentiles being included with the believers. A multi-ethnic church was established in Antioch, supported by Saul and Barnabas.

This marked the outreach to the ends of the earth. Paul and Barnabas travelled to Cyprus and Asia Minor, preaching to Jews and Gentiles, seeing many saved but also facing opposition. Despite the challenges, they established churches. Returning to Antioch, they reported their success, and the believers praised God.

A group of believers argued that Gentile converts must be circumcised. It had been the sign of belonging to God since Abraham. At a council in Jerusalem, James noted that the Gentiles had already received the Holy Spirit, a better seal than circumcision. The apostles agreed and sent a letter stating Gentiles didn’t need to adopt Jewish customs but must reject things offensive to God.

After a disagreement over John Mark, Paul and Barnabas went on separate missions. Paul, led by the Holy Spirit to Macedonia, preached to women and a jailer after being arrested.

In Thessalonica, Paul's message was angrily rejected, while in Berea, people examined the scriptures and saw its truth. Paul then travelled to Athens, using their culture to point to Jesus. In Corinth, Paul shifted focus to the Gentiles, spending 18 months building the church despite Jewish opposition.

After revisiting some churches, Paul returned to Antioch with Priscilla and Aquila. There, a zealous young man named Apollos began teaching about Jesus. Lacking training, Priscilla and Aquila mentored him and sent him to Corinth to support the church.

Acts 19-20

Now on his third mission journey, having first encouraged many of the already established church, Paul makes his way to Ephesus. Arriving at the city, Paul finds a group of believers already there.

Checking to see if they were legitimate, Paul asks if they’ve been baptised with the Holy Spirit. They explain they didn’t even know that was a thing. They only knew of John’s baptism.

So Paul explains to them that John’s baptism prepared people by leading them to repent, but ultimately pointed them to Jesus and his baptism into new life. Wanting this new life that Paul is speaking about, these believers are prayed for and receive the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and prophesying.

From there, Paul started to teach in the synagogue each week, but was quickly opposed by many of the Jews. Instead, he moved out of the synagogue and switched to a local lecture hall. For two years, Paul teaches and encourages believers in Ephesus, building the church there.

The Holy Spirit is with Paul so strongly that miracles are dripping of things he’s just touched. People are being healed and evil spirits are leaving. Some Jews who haven’t become believers decide they want to get in on this. They try using Jesus’ name, just as Paul does, casting evil spirits out of people.

The problem is Jesus’ name isn’t a magic word to be used. It’s the recognition of the power believers have through their relationship with him. Without this relationship, the Jews are left powerless and are beaten and robbed by those possessed by the evil spirits.

You might think this would cause people to turn from Jesus. ‘We tried his name, and it didn’t work’, they might say. Instead, it only strengthened the people’s faith. They realised, all the more, that Jesus is powerful and not to be played with. Many believers confessed that they had been playing around with magic and other dark things and brought all of their books to Paul to be burnt.

As more and more people began to believe, the idol makers began to get less and less business. A group of idol makers capture two of Paul’s friends and start a riot to try to chase Paul out of town. Fortunately, the town officials put a stop to this, and told the idol makers that if they had a genuine complaint, they could take it up with the courts, not start riots in the town.

Paul saw this as a good time to leave so, after saying goodbye to the believers, he set off visiting some of the others churches. He travelled around a bit, visiting churches in Macedonia and Greece.

On his travels, we get a bizarre, if not slightly funny, story of a young man who fell asleep during one of Paul’s teachings, fell out of a window and died. Paul went down to the young man and pulled him up, bringing him back to life, and then carried on with his teaching.

This story is another reflection of the resurrection stories we saw Peter and Jesus perform (see 1 Kings 17:17–24; 2 Kings 4:18–37, Luke 7:11-17, Acts 9:36-42). Just in case there was any doubt, Jesus’ power over life and death is very much still around.

Nearing the end of his trip, Paul decides to head back to Jerusalem to end. On his way back, he summons the elders of Ephesians to encourage them and say a last goodbye.

Getting a description of Paul’s speech, we see the heart he has for the people of Ephesus. As we read through his letters later, many people might assume that Paul was a very strict, business minded man. But here we see the compassion and love he has for his people. His desperation for them to know Jesus and his willingness to spend all that he is to help them get there.

He then encourages these elders to hold close to the Holy Spirit and be wary of those who might want to bring false teaching into the church. This all ends with weeping and prayers, hugs and kisses. And then the elders put Paul on his boat and send him off.

In circles where so much focus is on building church, we can sometimes forget the importance of building relationships. Paul was a master at building church, but he also built deep, genuine relationships wherever he went. He ministered to these people out of real love and care.

Psalm 126

This psalm isn’t attributed to anyone in particular and is named as a psalm of ascent. These psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Festival of Weeks, and Festival of Tabernacles) or possibly by the Levites as they ascended the steps of the Temple. Psalm 120-134 are all psalms of ascent.

Psalm 126:1-3 - Praise the Lord for the restoration of the city

Psalm 126:4-6 - Restore us further, O Lord

In this ascent journey we’ve gone from being far from God's presence (Psalm 120), to seeking God’s presence (Psalm 121), and then to reaching God’s presence (Psalm 122). From there, the psalmist has asked the Lord for help (Psalm 123) and then praised the Lord for his protection (Psalm 124).

From within Jerusalem, they reflected on the nature of righteousness and wickedness (Psalm 125). Now they thank God for how he has restored his city, but also ask for more. (Psalm 126).

The psalmist reflects on how the Lord restored Jerusalem. This potentially places this psalm after the exile when the people were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. During that time, it was a period of celebration and laughter. Even the foreign nations recognised the goodness of God to his people.

But then the psalmist asks the Lord to restore their fortunes again. After the exile, while the people were able to restore the city of Jerusalem, there was a recognition that it wasn’t as great as had been before. The Israelites were living in what we often now call the ‘now but not yet’.

They had been allowed to come and restore Jerusalem in part, but they were still waiting for when God would fully restore Jerusalem. For the psalmist, they ask that the tears and prayers that they sow now might turn into a harvest of joy and celebration when God does restore them.

Like the Israelites, we live in a ‘now but not yet’. The kingdom of God came with Jesus, but we look forward to the day when it will come fully and all brokenness and mourning will be done away with. In the meantime, we can eagerly seek that more and more of the kingdom of God show itself and be established in our communities.