Read: Acts 23:1-5

Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day. At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck! Those who were standing near Paul said, How dare you insult God’s high priest! Paul replied, Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people. Acts 23:1-5

What a left-footed beginning! There is a noticeable kind of reckless audacity about the apostle in his introduction. He seems to be careless, almost, of the consequences of what he says — like a man burning his bridges behind him. I rather suspect that he is aware, by now, that he has blundered into a very untenable situation and so he is trying to bull his way through, no matter what.

He does not begin with his usual courtesy. The customary address to the Sanhedrin was a standardized form which began, Rulers of Israel, and elders of the people… Paul does not employ that, but instead puts himself right on a level with these rulers, and he addresses them simply with the familiar term, Brothers. That was an offense to these Jews. He also implies that there is no possible ground of complaint against him. This was certainly true. Yet it seemed to imply that there was no reason for this meeting at all, that it was absurd to have called this council together.

So, for this seeming impudence and impertinence, the high priest commands that he be slapped across the mouth. That was an unusually degrading form of insult to an Israelite and Paul’s anger flashes out at this offense. He whips back this sharp, caustic retort: God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall! That was a typically Judaistic way of calling him a bloody hypocrite. It certainly is not the most tactful way for a prisoner to address a judge. It is very likely that Paul recognized who Ananias was, but what he did not know was that Ananias had recently been appointed high priest. The moment it is pointed out to him that Ananias is indeed the high priest, Paul is instantly repentant, for he recognizes that he is in the wrong. He apologizes, for the law says that the office deserves respect, even if the man does not.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – When the Flesh Rules →

Read: Acts 16:11-24

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. Acts 16:13-14

After the proclaiming of the Word of God, these disciples expected God to do something! That, by the way, is the missing note among Christians in many places today. Many have given up expecting God to do anything, while they expect to do everything. They expect to organize a program and carry it through. Many churches today are operating in such a way that, if the Holy Spirit were suddenly removed from their program, nobody would notice that anything had happened.

They do not expect God to do anything, but these people did. They just preached the Word and then they expected God to act. They could not tell what he would do — he is always unpredictable. He has several ways by which he gains access to a city, breaks open a community, and begins to spread the gospel and to plant a church. But right here you find one of the ways the Lord frequently uses: He has prepared men and women there, people whose hearts are ready to respond to the gospel. Such a woman was Lydia who was already a worshiper of God. She was a business woman who sold purple goods, who handled the purple dye for cloth which was so valuable in those days. She made a good living. She had her own home and it was large enough to accommodate Paul and his party. Her heart was ready, having been prepared by God, and she was led of God to be there and to hear.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – A Heart is Opened →

Read: Colossians 1:9-14

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives. Col 1:9b

The one thing Paul asks for is that the Colossians might come to understand God’s will. This is the important thing to Paul. He knows that if they begin to understand the will of God, everything good that he desires for them will follow. Thus, the chief aim of a believer’s life ought to be to know God’s will.

Here is where many young Christians go astray. They think the will of God is an itinerary they must discover: where God wants them to go, and what God wants them to do. Most of their prayers are addressed with those thoughts in mind. What should I do today? Where should I go? Whom should I marry? But knowing God’s will is about much more than simply knowing what to do, it begins with knowing who we are. Have you ever asked someone who upset you, Who do you think you are, anyway? We instinctively know that offensive behavior is a result of who we think we are. That is why such challenges are given.

God, too, knows that. The glory of the good news is that he has made us into something different than what we once were. Therefore the primary course in the curriculum of the Spirit is to learn what God has made you to be. You no longer belong to yourself, so you are no longer to live for yourself. Your will, your pleasure, your comfort are no longer to be primary in your life, but what God calls you to be and what he has made you to be. The more you understand who you now are, and what God has done to make you that, the more your behavior will automatically change and you will do the things that please him.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Knowing God’s Will →

Read: Genesis 32:9-32

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. Gen 32:24

This is one of those mysterious, intriguing incidents found very frequently in the Old Testament, where some element of mystery is introduced without much explanation. Everyone who reads this asks, Who is this masked man? Where did he come from? What is he doing? I am sure Jacob must have felt that way too. He thought he was all alone, having sent everyone and everything across the river, when suddenly out of the shadows steps a man, who to Jacob’s amazement begins to wrestle with him. As you read further, there is, no doubt as to who the man is. In fact, at the end of the story, Jacob names the place of this encounter, Peniel, which means, the face of God, because he said, I have met God face to face and still survived. Here is a man who, in some strange way, in one of those Old Testament theophanies, is God himself appearing in visible form, and he wrestles with Jacob.

What does all that mean? Taken in connection with the whole story there is no question that what we have here is God’s attempt to improve Jacob’s prayer life with a crash course on praying. God is attempting to break down Jacob’s stubborn dependence upon himself. Jacob’s problem was that he never really trusted God to do things. He always had that inward feeling that if he did not do it himself, God would probably not come through. Now God is dealing with him in a defining moment. Jacob has to face up to the fact that, though his prayers are eloquent, beautifully phrased, and theologically accurate, they are useless because he does not believe that God is going to do anything. All his trust is in himself. I meet a lot of people like that. They pray and talk wonderful, theologically-correct language but do not really believe God is going to act. This is what Jacob is doing here. There is no expectation, but rather a stubborn refusal on Jacob’s part to give up and expect God to handle the situation.

Continue reading Ray Stedman -Helplessness in Prayer →

Read: John 17:4-8

I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:4, 5

This prayer was prayed prior to his going the cross, but, in its scope, it reaches beyond and includes the cross. Our Lord knew where he was going, he knew what he would be doing in the next few hours and what would be accomplished. That work included more than the cross. It encompassed his ministry of healing and mercy, and even those thirty silent years back in Nazareth. They were all part of his life, his work, which the Father had given him to do.

He includes this in his prayer to indicate to us the character of his work while he was here. He is suggesting that his work was characterized by a continual self-emptying, that is, a laying aside of glory. Now that he has reached the end, he is ready to resume the glory which was properly his, but he is thinking back over thirty-three years of his life and recognizing that all during that time he had voluntarily surrendered his right to be worshipped, his right to the glory that belonged to both the Father and the Son. Jesus is pointing out that his work that glorified the Father was essentially one of self-emptying.

We are so confused about this. We think that God is interested in our activity, that there are certain religious pursuits which we can perform which God will be pleased with no matter in what frame of mind we do them. That is why we sometimes drag ourselves out to church week after week when we have little interest in attending church — because we think that attending church is what God wants. How little we understand God! It is not activity that he desires. It was not merely that which Jesus did which glorified the Father. It was not his ministry of mercy and good works. Others have done similar things. But it was the fact that throughout his life he had a heart that was ready to obey, an ear that was ready to hear, a will that was ready to be subject to the Father. It was his willingness to be always available, to forever be giving of himself, that glorified God.

There are many books written about the so-called cost of discipleship. They declare, in one way or another, that to have power with God we must pay a high price. In various ways they state that to become a victorious Christian, an effective Christian, requires a difficult and demanding discipline. I am not impressed with this type of literature at all. We have gotten the cart before the horse. I do not mean that such an approach is untrue, for the fact is that obedience to God does mean saying, No to a lot of other things. I do not mean that living for the glory of God does not indeed cost us certain fancied pleasures and relationships which perhaps we want to hold onto. But greater than the cost of discipleship is the cost of disobedience! There is where the emphasis should be placed.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – The Cost of Disobedience →

Read: Luke 11:2-4

He said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name… Luke 11:2b

The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer is one of surrender, Hallowed be your name. I am quite sure this is the petition that makes hypocrites out of most of us. For we can say, Father with grateful sincerity, but when we pray Hallowed be your name, we say this with the guilty knowledge that, as we pray, there are areas of our life in which his name is not hallowed and in which, furthermore, we don’t want it to be hallowed. When we say, Hallowed be your name, we are praying, May the whole of my life be a source of delight to you and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is your name. Hallowed be your name.

The trouble is that we so frequently know there are great areas of our life that are not hallowed. There are certain monopolies which we have reserved to ourselves, privileged areas which we do not wish to surrender, where the name of our boss or the name of our girl friend or some other dear one means more to us than the name of God. But when we pray this, if we pray it in any degree whatsoever of sincerity or openness or honesty, we are praying, Lord, I open to you every closet, I am taking every skeleton out for you to examine. Hallowed be thy name. There cannot be any contact with God, any real touching of his power, any genuine experiencing of the glorious fragrance and wonder of God at work in human life until we truly pray, and the second requisite of true prayer is that we say, Hallowed be your name.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – His Name is Holy →