It’s Time To Turn the Page to Acts 29

 

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Acts 28:25–31

They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

“‘Go to this people and say,

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

For this people’s heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’

“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been

sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

CONSIDER THIS

Paul knew how to open a conversation about the gospel, and he knew how to end one. In today’s text, he decides to go Isaiah 6-apostolic-nuclear on the Jews from Rome. Why? Here’s my theory.

There’s a type of sickness worse than death. Here are the symptoms: Eyes that see and yet functionally blind, ears that hear and yet functionally deaf, hearts that beat and yet functionally dead. This is the worst kind of sickness because by all appearances everything is fine. Even worse, everyone knows it but the one who has it. I suppose that’s the essence of self-deception, isn’t it?

To be self-deceived is to suffer from immunity to the cure.

Perhaps the most damning symptom of this kind of infection is the self-assured conviction that you don’t have it.

The only thing worse than a self-deceived person is a self-deceived religious expert. The only hope is some kind of trainwreck or horse wreck (as the case may be). Who knew this better than Paul? Maybe that’s why he was so slow to give up on his former colleagues. Paul knew what it meant to have a hard heart; to be convinced you are giving God the highest worship only to shockingly discover it was pure, unadulterated idolatry.

That’s what we’re dealing with here: idolatry. People inevitably become what they behold—for better or for worse. An idol has eyes but cannot see ears but cannot hear, and a heart but cannot feel. When one’s worship of God becomes driven by self-preservation or self-gain they have slipped from worship to idolatry. To worship an idol is to worship oneself. Their religion consists of self-deceived manipulation of the so-called god. If we do this, God will have to bless and prosper us, the thinking goes. It runs the gamut from the prosperity gospel to Islamic suicide bombers.

Take the latter as an extreme example. People who strap on suicide vests and detonate them in public markets do this not so much because they are deranged, but because they are devoted. They believe such an act will return to them an immediate, extravagant, and eternal blessing. Paul is a classic example. His devotion to “god” led him to kill Christians, and he had no idea of it. He was utterly self-deceived. He had become deaf to the word of God, blind to the image of God, and dead to the compassion of God. He had become the absolute worst version of his God-created self. That’s what idolatry does.

Idolatry always eventually casts a long shadow of injustice. It leads people to do things they never imagined they would do. It’s because idolatry cloaks itself in the slow seduction of self-deception.

The Isaiah 6 card is pretty much a game-ender. Apparently, Paul ran every play in his book to no avail. Finally, he played Isaiah 6: the apostolic nuclear option. Why? Because idolatry is a matter of life and death. 

The gospel, by its very nature, is confrontational. It doesn’t need our help. Sometimes, though, we must take it to the extreme. Sometimes it will require a willingness to possibly lose our friends in order to save their lives.

When all else fails, and there’s love in your heart for your hearers, don’t be afraid to go there. It may be their last best chance.

It’s a strange ending, isn’t it—to close the magisterial Acts of the Apostles mid-sermon and on a less than happy note? I think that’s part of the point. The Acts of the Apostles does not end until this glorious day dawns:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev. 21:1–4)

Now it’s time to turn the page to Acts 29. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE JOURNAL PROMPTS

Have you ever risked losing a friend in order to tell them the truth about God? How did that go?

THE HYMN

Today we will sing “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations” (hymn 458) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

P.S. HOW TO KEEP A WORD AND SPIRIT JOURNAL

There’s still time to register for our How to Keep a Word and Spirit Journal workshop coming this Monday evening, August 26. Link here.

P.P. S. GET YOUR EXODUS JOURNAL

There’s still time to order and get your Exodus Journal for the upcoming Wake-Up Call Series. Use the Code SOWEXODUS and we will send you two for the price of one. Invite a new sower to join us for the series. Link here. 

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