It's Day 57 and we're in Acts 5.
Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 17 - You'd like to think we work from higher motives, but even in the things of God it often comes down to things as petty as jealousy.
Help:
- Verse 5 - This is shocking. I think it speaks to the purity of the early church and how much God wanted to maintain that.
If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.
If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.
Your Questions and Comments:
- A comment from one of our 60IN60 participants. Exodus 33. "We are all going to gather on our porches and face toward your house, and we are going to expect something big to happen. I guess I understand this chapter, but it is amusing to imagine someone bragging, 'I have seen the backside of God.'”
- John 21. "The last few verses make no sense to me at all." - Verse 24 is oddly phrased because John likes to refer to himself without saying "I" or "me." Elsewhere he refers to himself as the "one Jesus loves." Basically verse 24 is John saying, "I wrote these words and my testimony is true." Verse 25 is an acknowledgement by John that he has just scratched the surface of all that he could have written. If he were somehow able to tell the full story of everyone that Jesus impacted, the world would be filled up by that many books.
- John 20. "This time, I found myself curious about John’s habit of not naming himself but referring to himself as the beloved disciple. Any ideas on his motivation?" - It is an odd way to phrase things. My guess is that because he was saying positive things about himself, like that he was the "one Jesus loved," that he found it less embarrassing to not use his name.
- A comment from a 60IN60 participant. John 18. "Jesus answered, 'I told you that I am He; so if you are seeking Me, let these men go on their way.' Four times Jesus tells the Romans and Pharisees, (who mostly make up the crowd), who he is. Once, so strongly, they fall back at his words. In his fourth declaration, Christ says (loose paraphrase) 'I’ve already told you who I am. I’m the one you came for, now let these men go.' Could it be that he is identifying himself repeatedly because Christ he knows that his disciples can’t endure what was to come? All but John would go on to be martyrs, but at this point, they are confused men. He is protecting them by his repeated declarations."
- John 15. "Could you say a few words about verse 7 please. Many times we pray for things— good prayers for other people, not selfish things—- yet they are not answered. Also in verses 16 and 17, there is much said about fruitfulness which I get, but then 17 speaks of loving one another. It seems disjointed and I don’t get the correlation. Is it saying that because we love our fellow man we should work to help them, be charitable and speak to them of salvation? Thank you." - 1. Verse 7. This is a great promise of answered prayer. It puts an important condition on answered prayer: if we remain in Him and He remains in us, which basically means if we are close to Him. (We get close to Him by obeying His commands - v. 10). This makes sense: if I am listening to Jesus' words and incorporating them into my life, I am going to ask for things that glorify God and that He is eager to answer. There are always situations where God's answer is delayed because of timing issues or because He has other plans, but the biggest point is that our default should be the expectation that God is eager to answer. This is something that is largely missing today, as we often pray without any real expectation of seeing an answer. One good way to think of this is that there are times when God doesn't answer our prayer for the good thing because He has a plan to give us a better thing. 2. Verses 16-17. These two verses are the conclusion of a section that begins with v. 12. Verse 16 teaches us that Jesus' goal for our lives (the reason He has chosen us) is so that we can go forward and live fruitful lives. Verse 17 is a reminder to love one another. Verse 17 ends the passage with the same instruction that v. 12 started it with: love each other. Think of it like a sandwich. The "bread" (vv. 12 and 17) tell us to love each other. The "meat" (vv. 13-16) tell us about the way that Jesus loved us. The connection is that when we see the instruction to "love each other" (vv. 12, 17) and wonder, "What exactly does it look like to do that?" we turn to Jesus' example (as detailed in vv. 13-16) to learn what that kind of sacrificial love looks like.
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