Leaving the Old Life Behind: Simon the Sorcerer

Simon the Sorcerer

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In Acts 8 we read about Simon the Sorcerer, a man who was somebody great in the eyes of many people and liked it that way!  Then Phillip arrived, demonstrating greater power as he testified about Jesus Christ and the eternal life that He offers.  Phillip believed, impressed by the wonders Phillip performed as a sign that God really was at work.  He was even baptised to show that he'd left his old life behind and wanted to now live for God as His child.  However old habits die hard, and when he saw the power Peter and John exercised in giving the Holy Spirit he offered them money if they would just give him that ability.  He wanted to be someone great again, someone people followed as a power in his own right.  Peter made it very clear that this kind of attitude and desire does not fit with God's people, urging Simon to turn away from his sin. 
It's this willingness to leave our old life behind that demonstrates true conversion.  We cannot claim to follow Christ if we are also determined to keep going on our own path.  Sure, we'll mess up - a lot!  But each time we do God by His Spirit helps us to see the sin that is still part of who we are, confess it and leave it at the cross where it has been dealt with by Jesus.  The divine transaction is then completed when we accept from Christ a purity of heart that helps us to move forward as people who are like Him, living by His Spirit instead of controlled by our own sinful tendencies.  Then God will produce all kinds of great stuff in us and through us for His glory, our joy and the blessing of those we touch.

Taming the Inner Uproar: The Story of Martha & Mary

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The story of Mary & Martha in Luke 10 is a great help to anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, flustered and even just a little bit resentful. It's a story about how one woman's strength - her awareness of others' practical needs and her willingness to serve them - almost grew into a weakness that threatened to steal her joy and damage her relationships. By diagnosing the issue and dealing with it Jesus doesn't do what most of us would and simply try pacify the agitated person. Instead, He gives Martha a chance to gain a right perspective and find freedom from her inner uproar.

Lives to Learn From: Phillip

 
Lives to Learn From: Phillip

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The spread of the Gospel crossed cultural boundaries which the early Jewish believers wouldn’t have expected. But the story of how Phillip spoke to Samaritans & to the Ethiopian on the road remind us of the all-inclusive nature of God’s grace to all people. We are all one in Christ – “One for all”.

Lives To Learn From: Stephen

Lives to Learn From: Stephen

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Stephen was a man whose life and death made a profound impact on all those who witnessed them.

Lives To Learn From: Gamaliel

Lives to Learn From: Gamaliel 
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There are many ways that we can lead or influence people – Seniority, title, friendship etc. But the true test to know if influence is from God is to test if it is in line with what we already know of God, and if it endures to fulfill His purposes. Gamaliel was a man who knew a “God thing” when he saw it.

Lives to Learn From pt 6 - Barnabas, Ananias & Sapphira

Lives to Learn From in the Book of Acts

Pt 6: Barnabas, Ananias & Sapphira
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What is the 'normal' level of sacrifice for a Christian to make in serving God? We sometimes read about people who leave everything to go serve in far away places, or who give everything away to support people in need, and we think 'I could never be like that'. That kind of devotion and self-sacrifice is surely beyond normal - it's freakish! The funny thing is that when you read Acts 4 and 5, that kind of devotion actually sounds pretty common. People really got the Romans 12:1 principle - it's only reasonable in the light of what God has done for us to give ourselves completely to Him. 

Barnabas was one of a bunch of people who sold their possessions in order to give to the poor. We read later in Acts about how he traveled and served God wherever God called him to. A great example! The weird, freakish thing was when a couple of people - Ananias and Sapphira - tried to look like people who were giving it all but were actually holding back for themselves. What got them in trouble wasn't that they held back some of the money they'd got for selling some land, it was that they lied about it. They wanted the credit for something that wasn't true. 

God did not want to see hypocrisy and deceit becoming the new normal in His Church, so He made it pretty clear that this kind of behaviour was not OK and not safe. It's still not safe today. Sure, God might not cause people to die so dramatically very often, but those kinds of attitudes still produce stunted disciples and turn others away from Jesus. God showed his love for the early church and for Ananias and Sapphira by disciplining them and stopping the poison before it spread. He still shows His love for us today by disciplining us when we need it so that we learn not to hold on so tightly to the stuff of this world - so our lives can be purified for His service. If God did nothing, Ananias and Sapphira's legacy could have been that they started a corrupting trend in the church. Because He did something, their legacy is that many people grew in respect and reverence for God and the church continued to grow.  If we assume that Ananias and Sapphira were genuine believers in Jesus who made a poor decision together, we can say that in eternity they will be glad that God intervened the way He did, even though they must be sad that their behaviour made it necessary for Him to do so.

Lives to Learn From pt 5: The Cripple at the Temple Gates

The Cripple at the Temple Gates 

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The story of the healing of the cripple at the temple gates is one of the most memorable in the book of Acts. We love to imagine the joy of being able to walk after 40 years and the life transformation that it would bring in that society. We love to witness the overflowing joy of a former cripple who is "walking and leaping and praising God" as a favourite song describes. 

 

However that's just the beginning of the miracle. The point of the healing was not a better quality of life for one individual for the remainder of his earthly existence - it was part of God's plan to bring Jesus into focus so that many people would have the opportunity to experience eternal life. The rest of Acts 3 and 4 describe the incredible way that the healing event provided an opportunity for Peter & John to boldly testify about the risen Jesus and to see many people place their faith in Him. 

 

Are we so excited about the miracle of new life that God has worked in us that our overflowing praise brings Jesus into the view of all around us so they may also be saved? We're reminded in Romans 12 that offering all our lives to God as living sacrifices is our reasonable response of worship to the One who gave it all for our salvation. What will that look like for you? Will you be one like the cripple whose transformed life captures peoples' attention? Will you be like the Apostles who testified about Jesus despite the threats and hostility of those who opposed them? Will you be like the believers who prayed for the Holy Spirit to empower their witness? All are needed in order to see salvation brought to the lost.