Author: Christian Hile

Acts 8

The eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles comes shortly after a very tragic event. This chapter shows the aftermath of a massive persecution that began to take place in the early church, namely Jerusalem. Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5), was one of the seven deacons chosen to help solve the neglection of the Hellenist (Greek) widows in the daily distribution. Stephen, a wise man of good reputation, was giving a sermon to those Jews who opposed Christianity, and let’s just say it was not taken well. Stephen stated in Acts 7:51, referring to these Jews, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” The word says that they were cut to the heart and actually gnashed at Stephen. They stoned Stephen for the words he faithfully said to them, and this marked the start of a vast persecution with a man named Saul at the center of it.

Now that we have set the scene, lets dive into our text for today! We will be looking at Acts 8:1-8! Please go ahead and read this passage now!

Now that we have our context, we see that Saul was the one consenting to Stephen’s death and a leader of this “great persecution”. The NKJV says that Saul was making “havoc” of the church, the NLT states that Saul was “destroying” the church, and the ESV states that Saul was “ravaging” the church. However you want to describe it, we can recognize that this was a major persecution. This wasn’t just name calling or boycotting Christian marketplaces, this was separating Christian homes and dragging men and women alike to prison. Often, similar to Stephen, Christians were killed for their faith. I don’t want to belittle the pain caused by name-calling or other forms of persecution, rather I want to emphasize the magnitude of this persecution in Acts 7 and 8. I want to fast forward to Acts 9:4 and share what Jesus said about this persecution. He stated, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Now you may be thinking, what does this have to do with anything. Well, it gives us the comfort knowing we are not alone in our persecution because the persecution is against our Father also. Additionally, Jesus states in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first” (NLT). You are not alone in persecution!

Acts 8:2 states that this great persecution scattered Christians throughout the regions of Samaria and Judea. The main lesson to learn from this passage is that God will take even the worst things in this world and use them for His glory! Read verse 4. It says that as people were being scattered because of persecution, the Word was preached. Jesus used this debilitating experience to fulfill his prophecy in Acts 1:8 when He said, “…and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We see the result of the faithful, sacrificial preaching of God’s word was people being saved, healed, delivered, and encouraged! I want to leave you with this verse from Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Nothing can ever separate you from the Love of God. You are not alone in trials, tribulations, and persecutions. You never know how God will use your circumstances for His glory!

Psalm 10

Most scholars believe that Psalm 10 and Psalm 9 were originally 1 psalm in the Greek Septuagint, and somewhere along time, they got separated into two different psalms. This psalm should be attributed to David and is another great psalm of him crying out to God to avenge his oppressors. He starts the psalm by asking God, “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble?” David then spends the better half of this psalm explaining the character traits of the wicked. They are proud, boastful, deceiving, cursing, workers of iniquity, unrighteous, and oppressive. Maybe worst of all, David describes them as people who do not believe God will require an account of them. This displays their actions and motives holistically. If someone does not believe that there are consequences for their actions, then they are their own judge and will do whatever they want. Let me be straight with anyone reading this. Your sin will find you out, and if you die separated from God, with no atonement, you will be punished for your sinful activity by reaping eternal punishment in hell. The beautiful thing is that you do not have to die separated. Jesus provided the way out when He bled and died on a cross 2,000 years ago!

For the rest of this short post, lets focus on how David feels during this oppression. Often when bad things are happening in the world, we ask a couple of questions. Where are you God? Why is this happening to me? Why do these horrific things happen to such good people? My mentor always says, “bad things are not indicative of a bad God, but a bad world.” I believe this is true. Sometimes we can’t find Him because we aren’t looking or listening. Other times it’s because we are looking or listening to the wrong things. Still, other times, God wants us to remain under trials for the strengthening of our faith.

God is working on His own timeline called eternity. We humans are very fickle, and we want things a certain way. We want oppressors punished right now! We want the Lord to handle this family strife right now! We want our food right now, so we throw it in the microwave! God works things out for our good and for His glory, only in His timing. He will avenge the oppression, but in His timing.

So how can there be so much evil if God is the King forever and ever? Well, the Bible portrays Satan as the prince of the air (Eph. 2:2) and as the prince of this world (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). Satan’s goal is to steal, kill, and destroy everything you own, love, and cherish. Go read Job’s story for more information. His goal is to drag as many people to hell with him as he can. So, the result of that is sometimes our world can look like hell. But for us as believers, this world is as bad as it gets.

Now quickly read verses 14-18 with me. David trusts the Lord even when he doesn’t hear God or see Him acting. God is observing our trouble and grief, He is the Father of the fatherless, He is King forever and ever, and He hears every single prayer that you pray. Sometimes we cannot explain why God allows certain things to happen, but we have faith and trust that He is still a good, sovereign, trustworthy God because He works all things together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8: 28).

John 18

This chapter of John’s gospel follows Jesus’ prayer for both you and I as believers in Him. Following this prayer in chapter 17, Jesus and His disciples got up and crossed over the Brook Kidron where there was a garden called Gethsemane. This garden was at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended to heaven and where He will return someday. This scene is where Judas’ betrayal of Jesus started to materialize.

Judas, along with a detachment of troops from the pharisees and high priests came to seize Jesus and to take him to be judged before Annas, Caiaphas (the high priest), and then Pilate (Roman governor). The religious leaders found Jesus as an “evildoer” (v. 30 NKJV), but they could not put Jesus to death according to their law (v. 31). Then they took Jesus before the roman governor Pontius Pilate, persistently seeking for Jesus to be killed. The first thing Pilate asks is, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (v. 33). Jesus answers Pilate’s question in verse 37 boldly claiming His kingship and His purpose for coming to the world: to “bear witness to the truth”.

Quite possibly one of the sadder quotations found in the Bible comes after this. Pilate asks, “What is truth?” and then left before he got the answer from the Messiah himself.

God has preserved His scriptures for thousands of years so that you and I may know the truth and this is it:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (John 3: 16-21)

God took on flesh to dwell among us, to live a perfect life, to die on a cross, and to rise again conquering both sin and death. You are not too far gone. Read Paul’s words to Timothy,

“… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. ‘However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” (1 Timothy 1: 15-16)

God is patient, He does not condemn. He does not throw shame and guilt. You haven’t strayed too far for God to forgive you. You don’t earn your salvation; you receive it as a gift. Don’t move on with your day before understanding and knowing the truth. Don’t leave without understanding it. Don’t be Pilate.

John 8

This chapter of John’s gospel has a multitude of themes from condemnation, legalism, and forgiveness (vv. 1-12) to Jesus’ indisputable ‘I AM’ statement declaring His divinity (v. 58). We see other truths throughout this chapter including how our sonship is characterized by our actions and our actions display who our father is, Satan or God (vv. 37-47). Don’t take this passage the wrong way. Just because you are a child of God does not mean you will be sinless, but as the individual matures in their walk, he/she should sin less as a byproduct of their faith. Within this chapter, Jesus also prophecies that the Jews (a term in this passage used for the pharisees) will be the ones who have Jesus crucified (vv. 21-30). For the sake of time, the remainder of this post will examine verses 1-12.

It is always important to start with the context of any passage so we can get the full picture. The setting of John 7 is the Jew’s Feast of Tabernacles (John 7: 2, 37) and as we continue reading into chapter 8, the celebrations had concluded, but no doubt many people had remained in Jerusalem for the night and then woke up at dawn to hear the Rabbi Jesus speak in the temple in Jerusalem (John 8: 2). Then here come the pharisees bringing a woman who was caught in the act of adultery trying to trap Jesus in his sayings (If only they knew Jesus was God and could not be trapped). This is the trap: if Jesus told them to stone the woman, He would have broken Roman law that disallowed the Jews to carry out their own executions (John 18:31), but if He told them not to stone the woman, then He would have broken Jewish law (Deut. 22:22-23. Note that this law is for both man and woman to be stoned and is for certain circumstances).

Jesus calmly starts writing in the dirt. It is unknown what He is writing, but some believe the ten commandments and others believe the accusers’ names and sins. Jesus upholds the Jewish law by permitting the stoning, but He found a loophole. Jesus, knowing the conscience He put in man states, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” One by one the accusers left. When Jesus and the woman were alone, Jesus confronted her sin with compassion, mercy, and gentleness stating, “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” No doubt this is a staple for how we ought to display compassion and mercy to others, but it also shows us to not condone sin in others’ lives. This is the idea of speaking truth in love to our believing friends and family members who have fallen into a sinful lifestyle. We act and speak with grace and mercy, not in condemnation. It is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to convict the person, but it is our responsibility to bear their burdens with them.

Tools to help us in confronting sin in our believing friends lives
1. Display Jesus’ compassion, mercy, and forgiveness (John 8: 11)
2. Act with a spirit of humility and gentleness (Galatians 6:1)
3. Be careful not to be tempted and fall into sin as well (Galatians 6:1)
4. Fulfill the law of Christ: Loving God by Loving your Neighbor (Galatians 6: 2)
5. The Truth is what sets a person free, not a set of strategies (John 8: 31-32)
6. Be patient and pray earnestly (2 Peter 3:9, Colossians 4:2)

My prayer for you all would be to not take my word for it, but to vigilantly search the scriptures like the Bereans in Acts 17!