Well, I Do Declare!

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                        Acts 2:11

Well, I Do Declare!

by Robert T. Cooper

So I was being cute with the title to this blog post. But you have heard people say that, and perhaps have even said it yourself. It doesn’t me the speaker has said anything noteworthy or profound. It is just an exclamation.

On the other hand, The Declaration of Independence was a document in which the American colonies of Great Britain stated they were putting off colonial status and on their own initiative taking on the status of independent, sovereign states. What was said in that document was indeed noteworthy and in some ways profound.

It was Pentecost Sunday. The Holy Spirit had come upon 120 followers of Jesus who had spent the last 10 days in prayer. The last thing Jesus had said to them was that they would receive power to be His witnesses when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Sure enough, that is what happened that Pentecost morning.

Immediately, the 120 began speaking to each in attendance at the feast. One thing the Holy Spirit did was to enable the 120 to speak in the heart languages of those nationals and internationals who were present.

What did the 120 say when they engaged folks in conversation? Verse 11 says the 120 declared the wonders of God. That is, the 120 told of the noteworthy miracles God had done.

We aren’t given any particular details as to which wonders were declared on that particular day. One may surmise the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Forgiveness of Sin, and more were included.

1)      If you were going to declare the wonders of God, which would you include?

2)      To whom might you declare the wonders of God in the next few days?

More Than One Might Guess

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                Acts 1:21 – 22

More Than One Might Guess

by Robert T. Cooper

If you study the Bible for very long, you quickly come to understand that the biblical writers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit did not record every detail of every incident. Modern writers are mostly careful to give plenty of details in every scene, particularly if one of those details is going to matter later in the story. That is simply not the case in the Bible. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Let’s start with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. And let’s look at it particularly from the perspective of the Gospel of Luke, since Luke is the one who also wrote the book of Acts. Luke says that when “all the people were baptized, Jesus was baptized too. But Jesus hasn’t been tempted yet. He hasn’t begun His public ministry yet. He hasn’t selected His apostles yet. The women aren’t yet following Him, not that Luke will quickly get around to mentioning them either.

Comparing Luke’s Gospel with John’s, the first two men who would eventually become apostles didn’t start following Jesus until the next time John the Baptist saw Jesus after His baptism.

For the second example, let us consider Luke’s account of the Ascension. The way the Gospel tells that incident, Jesus has just appeared to the apostles (plus Cleopas and Cleopas’ companion) on what we would call Easter Sunday night. We learn elsewhere that Thomas was not with the other 10 apostles that night. The very next thing Luke tells in his Gospel is that Jesus took this group out to the vicinity of Bethany for His Ascension.

The book of Acts begins with the Ascension. In this case, Luke only indicates that Jesus took the apostles (presumably the Eleven) to the Mount of Olives. It was there that He ascended.

Having laid all of that groundwork, let’s look at what Peter says later in Acts 1.

Acts 1:21 – 22 NIV

²¹Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

Acts 1:21 – 22 NIV

They were going to select someone to replace Judas as an apostle so there would once again be Twelve. To qualify to be a candidate, this person would have to have been with the apostles the entire 3½ years of Jesus’ ministry, just like the Eleven. The candidates would have to have been there for everything from Jesus’ baptism to the Ascension.

What does this mean? It means that all of the original Twelve, the two who were nominated to replace Judas, and presumably some others were present at Jesus’ baptism. It means that the two who were nominated to replace Judas, and presumably some others, were present at the Ascension. It means that the two who were nominated to replace Judas, and presumably some others, were present during virtually the entire ministry of Jesus between His baptism and His ascension, particularly for the post-Resurrection appearances.

Now tell me. When you were reading the Gospels, did you pick up that Matthias and Barsabbas were present at most all of those events? Did you pick up that there were others besides these two who were present at most all of those events? Did you even pick up that the ten besides Andrew and John were present at Jesus’ baptism? I confess I didn’t.

So when you are reading the Bible, understand that we are not getting all the details we would expect from a modern author. But understand that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we are getting everything we need to know for a proper spiritual understanding of what God is saying to us. Thanks be to God!

Which of these things have occurred to you previously? Which were new ideas to you? Do you indeed have confidence that God is communicating to you all you need to understand for your spiritual benefit? I look forward to reading your comments.

Curiosity Killed the Cat

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:6

Curiosity Killed the Cat

by Robert T. Cooper

In 2009 I spent nearly the entire year preaching through the book of Revelation. The congregation wanted to do it again. After prayer, I decided that if I was going to preach through it again, I would do so in more depth. So I spent nearly all of 2010 – 2011 preaching through it a second time.

I first became aware of Revelation in the mid-1960’s when my mother listened to programs on the subject on the radio. When I was in college the big book was Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. In seminary I spent some time examining the various -isms of interpretation of Revelation. In more recent days we have had the Left Behind series of books and related materials. And so on until just yesterday a Facebook friend said she was reading through the book of Revelation.

Folks are simply curious about what the future holds. We cry out, “Maranatha! Lord, come quickly!” In many ways we are anxious for the fullness of Christ’s reign to come.

The Twelve (or in this case, the Eleven) were like that. Their culture had driven into their minds the expectation that the Messiah would conquer the Romans and bring back into existence an independent Jewish state such as during the Maccabean period. Perhaps it was the realization that Jesus had no intention of doing so, at least not immediately, that drove Judas to betray Him. Yet after the Resurrection the Eleven were back to their earlier expectation of a literal earthly Kingdom with Jesus as monarch.

It is an issue. Whether it be the Millennial Kingdom or the Eternal State that comes next in history, we want to know, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom?”

When I was a child there was a cartoon called “Peeping Penguins.” I had forgotten the cartoon featured penguins, but I did remember all these years later the song sung by the mother, “Curiosity Killed the Cat.”

Perhaps having an interest in whether Christ will establish His Kingdom in the near future will not necessarily kill a disciple. Yet a person can become so fixated on the Doctrine of Last Things that one is not very well tuned into living for Jesus today or into the real-life ministry needs of those around us. I was once in a store in which an Adventist tried to engage me in conversation. All he wanted to talk about was Last Things. I had other things I wanted to discuss.

Indeed, as we will see, Jesus had something else He wanted to talk to the Eleven about before His Ascension. He wanted to talk about getting the lost into His spiritual Kingdom.

But God is like that. There will be plenty of time to think about whatever physical Kingdom will be established at the time of its establishment. Meanwhile, let us be faithful to the task of living for Jesus and ministering to people in this moment.

Questions: What proportion of your time do you spend contemplating Last Things? What would Jesus rather you be doing with at least some of your time? Will you start living according to His agenda for your life?