The Kingdom, Rightly Expressed (Acts 8: 4-25)

In the last sermon in this series, we discussed how the persecution that followed Stephen’s death scattered the church. The persecution was bad, but the scattering was good. It took God’s people out of Jerusalem and into all the world. #greatcomission  This is where we pick up.

4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention (“were praying to him”[1]) and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”[2] 11 They followed him because he had bewitched them for a long time with his sorcery.

 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ,[3]they were baptized, men and women.[4] 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, bewitched by the great signs and miracles he saw.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.[5]

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability/authority so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 Peter answered: “"Your silver will go with you to destruction, because you thought that the gift of God is acquired by the possessions of the world."21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 

22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”[6]24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”[7]

25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

* * * * *

We learn a lot in this passage about how God expects His kingdom to come to earth, as it is in heaven. We will focus on three key things.

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, brings blessing and joy.

Sick and broken people (and those who cared about them) listened to what Philip had to say when their lives got better after a follower of Jesus showed up. He cast out demons and healed the sick. “There was great joy.” You bet there was.[8] How would there not be?  I’ve said more than once that when the Kingdom is clicking on all cylinders, the poor, the sick, the powerless and oppressed are going to say, “Thank God the Christians are here!”

However, if the story stops there, it’s just a contest of miracles vs. magic. Apparently Simon did some really impressive stuff too. I don’t know if he made their lives better, but he had their attention. It seems that people tend to follow both 1) those who impress them, and 2) those would can make their lives better. So, there is going to have to be more to what Philip has to offer than just the practical provision. And there is.

“But Philip proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.”

There are different reasons people follow a spiritual leader—but only one reason people become disciples: they accept a truth that transforms not just their physical bodies but also their hearts and souls.

Great joy came to the city thanks to how Philip was healing people, and that was a good thing. But just like Jesus healing the lame man before he forgave his sins, Philip healed people on the outside in the name of Jesus so they had good reason to believe that Jesus had the power to heal them on the inside.

This could be a whole sermon, but I’ll try to put it succinctly. If the power of God manifesting in ways that people could see served as proof that God can do things inside that they couldn’t see, would that not be true of any manifestation of the power of God? Not just the kind of miracles Philip did, but the tangible expression of God’s love, kindness, mercy, justice, grace, etc.? When we express these things as tangible actions that help the circumstances of others in ways they can see, I suspect it sends a message about what God can do in the intangible spiritual parts of people that they can’t see. To paraphrase an old saying, we can give someone a fish, teach them to fish, and point them to Jesus, who feeds their souls. They all work together.

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, erases unholy fault lines.[9]

The laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit is recorded only two other times in Acts (the conversion of Saul in Acts 9, and a group of disciples in Ephesus in Acts 19). There were a lot of other times where the laying on of hands does not seem necessary (like at Pentecost). Why did it matter here?

I’m leaning toward the commentaries that suggest the apostles laid hands on them here because they needed to be a part of a clear sign that the Spirit of God was living and active in Samaritans (!).[10]

The Samaritans were descendants of Israelites who had intermarried with the conquering Assyrians during the exile (2 Kings 17). They kept some Old Testament traditions and doctrine, but they also blended pagan beliefs. Faithful Jews saw Samaritans as corrupt and unclean.

When Jews from the Southern Kingdom returned from Babylonian captivity and began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans offered help. The Jews refused. So, the Samaritans tried to sabotage what they were doing (Ezra 4:1–5). They also tried to stop the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall (Nehemiah 4:2).

The Samaritans finally built a temple of their own. About 130 years before the time of Jesus, a Jewish king defeated the Samaritan nation and destroyed their temple on Mount Gerizim. Though it was never rebuilt, the Samaritans insisted that Gerizim was the only legitimate place of worship – which was part of Jesus discussion with the woman at the well (John 4:20). [11]

Jews and Samaritans had centuries of theological/social hostility. If they weren’t careful, the early church could fracture along old lines of hostility. The apostles themselves needed to participate in ratifying Jesus’ presence with the Samaritans and literally touching a people the Jews would have considered unclean. God made unity visible, with the hands of his people standing in for His hand being upon them.

The gospel doesn’t just heal individuals—it heals communities. It breaks unholy boundaries, confronts old rivalries, and forms what Paul will eventually call “one new humanity.” (Ephesians 2:15)

This could be a whole sermon, so here’s the brief version: There is just no room for unholy fault lines in the church. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:26-28,

It is your faith in the Anointed Jesus that makes all of you children of God because all of you who have been initiated into the Anointed One through the ceremonial washing of baptism have put Him on. It makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a freeman, a man or a woman, because in Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King, you are all one.

In that culture, there were fault lines between Jews and Greeks, slave and free, and men and women (I guess the Samaritan one had already been addressed). Today we might talk about separating, judging, and creating hierarchies of value over things like race, nationality, class, education level, gender, age, citizenship, etc. Every culture at every time has its own things that hinder God’s people from uniting in Christ.

One thing is clear. God allows no place for this. God demands that the good news of the saving gospel of Jesus be given to all people at all places at all times, and that when we are genuinely united by the Spirit of God, the ground will be level at the foot of the cross, and whosever will may come.

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, chooses service over control.

Simon will provide us with what an example of at least one thing that will ruin a joyful community: pride; or the need to be in control to elevate oneself.

Justin (The) Martyr, martyred in 165, had Samaritan lineage. He claimed that almost all the Samaritans considered Simon the highest god (our translation gives the title “the Great Power of God.”) Whatever Simon was doing must have been impressive. Yet, Simon appears to have responded to the message of the Gospel: he “believed” and was “baptized.” Then he apparently saw something really powerful when the Holy Spirit arrived, and he wanted a piece of that action.

“Give me also this ability/authority so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit...”

Peter saw into the root of the problem and called it out:

“Your heart is not right before God… you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

Bitterness seems like an odd choice of words – unless it has something to do with being angry that he had lost the spotlight. He seems to have desired power, a stage, a reputation, importance, admiration, etc. To accomplish those things, he was willing to turn the Holy Spirit into a commodity to distribute. It looks like he was more interested in people being impressed by him than transformed by the Holy Spirit.

It’s a terrible practice to use the things of the Kingdom to magnify ourselves. The Kingdom invites surrender; we do not have hearts right before God when we continue to desire control and seek power or try to make sure the spotlight does not waver in its focus on us.

We see Simon’s un-right heart on display when Peter invited repentance.[12] Simon didn’t repent; he just asked Peter to “pray that nothing bad happens to me.” Apparently Peter did, because there is no record that anything bad happened to Simon.[13]  

There’s probably a whole sermon to preach here  but if “hope deferred makes the heart sick,” I wonder if “pride deferred makes the heart bitter.” Here’s something to watch out for: if it makes us mad and/or jealous when the spotlight wavers from us and focuses on someone else, we need a heart check. The church is meant to filled with servants, not attention-seekers. We need servers, not celebrities. Remember what the ground is like at the foot of the cross? That’s the landscape on which God’s church is meant to be built.

Quick recap:

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, brings blessing and joy. It will attract because it makes life better when rightly lived. But that kind of blessing alone doesn’t lead to faith. It opens doors (or eyes and ears) into which “the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” can be preached. Practical provision is an important good that can transform someone’s practical condition, but only the gospel transforms hearts. It’s good to do both.

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, erases unholy fault lines.  God made the apostles lay hands on Samaritans – a people previously loathed by the Jewish people - so that everyone would know that no one is second-class in the kingdom of God. The Spirit unites what all the divisive “-isms”[14] would tear apart.

The Kingdom, rightly expressed, chooses service over control. Simon wanted the benefits of the kingdom without surrendering to its King. He wanted the Spirit’s power in his hands rather than over his life. The King of  this Kingdom confronts this. The kingdom is not magic, manipulation, or power—it is surrender, transformation, and a new kind of life of cruciform love empowered by the Holy Spirit.

* * * * *

Acts 8 gives us a warning and a hope.

The warning: We can go through all the motions—believe, get baptized, follow the miracles—and still miss the heart of the kingdom. Matthew 7:15-23 notes:

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 

Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

This is a wild passage. Apparently, people can prophesy, cast out demons, and do miracles, while being practitioners of lawlessness who are not part of the kingdom. Those verses suggest that sometimes prophecy, exorcism and miracles are actually bad fruit. That should sober us when we are drawn to someone’s ministry simply because of signs and wonders.

It’s those who do the will of the Father – those who increasingly look like Jesus - whom Jesus recognizes as his own. There is something about faithful obedience in response to God’s love and grace that is really, really important. It’s the fruit of the Holy Spirit that offers testimony to true discipleship. Let’s never elevate impressiveness over character, or charisma over righteous maturity. 

The hope: When Peter confronted Simon, he invited him to repent. This participates in a theme we see over and over in the Bible.

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." (Acts 3:19)

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them finds mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)

 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

 “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”[15] (Joel 2:13)

Grace remains offered to even the worst offenders. Simon’s sin is pretty terrible: treating the Holy Spirit like a magical toy. And yet he is told,

“Repent and pray to the Lord in hope that he may forgive you.”

Or, as Peter will later say,

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)

The is the heart of “the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.” God will make us new, and invites us into life in His kingdom.

 ___________________________________________________________________________

[1] Aramaic Bible in Plain English

[2] “Simon Magus the sorcerer is frequently mentioned in ancient writings outside the Bible as the archenemy of the church and one of the leaders of the Gnostic heresy. Gnosticism (named from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge”) taught that a person gained salvation not by the merit of Christ’s death for sinners, but by special knowledge about God. Justin Martyr (died c. a.d. 165), himself a Samaritan, says that almost all the Samaritans considered Simon the highest god (the “power of God,” v. 10). Irenaeus (died c. a.d. 180), who wrote extensively against the Gnostics, regards Simon as one of the sources of their heresies.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible) 

[3] HELPS Word-studies 3686 ónoma – name; (figuratively) the manifestation or revelation of someone's character, i.e. as distinguishing them from all others. Thus "praying in the name of Christ" means to pray as directed (authorized) by Him, bringing revelation that flows out of being in His presence. "Praying in Jesus' name" therefore is not a "religious formula" just to end prayers (or get what we want)! 

["According to Hebrew notions, a name is inseparable from the person to whom it belongs, i.e. it is something of his essence. Therefore, in the case of the God, it is specially sacred" (Souter).]

[4] “The eager reception by the people (v. 12) is due in part to the foundation laid by St. Photini, the Samaritan woman of Jn 4, who brought news of the Messiah before His crucifixion (see Jn 4:39).” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[5] The Orthodox call this chrismation, the “anointing for the reception of the Holy Spirit”.

[6] Peter is using language from Isa 58.6.

[7] “He offered Simon an opportunity to repent, for Simon, unlike Ananias and Sapphira who died instantly (5:5, 10), was quick to ask for prayers so that the curse pronounced by Peter would not take effect (8:24).” (Africa Bible Commentary)

[8]  “Spirit-given delight that arises from the redemptive acts and abiding presence of God.” (Topical Lexicon)

[9] Think of things that could bring about relational earthquakes that shake or fracture the church.

[10] “The Lord waited to demonstrate the full power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 15–16) until some of the apostles themselves could be present. This way there would be no question at all that the Samaritans had received the Holy Spirit in the same way that the Jewish Christians had (see Rom. 11:13–24; Eph. 2:11–22).” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[11] I am summarizing parts of an article from The Master’s University called “The Unlikeliest Ally.” https://www.masters.edu/thinking_blog/the-unlikeliest-ally/

[12] Something he had not done with Ananias & Sapphira. They lied to the Spirit; Simon tries to buy the Spirit. That’s seems equally egregious. Hmmmm…..

[13] “According to tradition, he afterwards returned to his magical arts and was a bitter enemy of the Church.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[14] Racism, sexism, classism, etc.

[15] #Godcreed

The Cost Of Following Jesus: Salt and Fire

I noted last week:

“When it stops being culturally hard to be a follower of Jesus—when it starts to be to our cultural advantage to be Christian—historically, that has always presented a danger of compromise and corruption in the church.But when the cost of being a child of God is high, a purified church filled with love and hope shines like a city on a hill into a world dark with hate and despair.”

There is something about this reality for the institution of the church that has importance for the individuals in the church as well. There is always going to be a cost to following Jesus, and it’s for our good. If we aren’t willing to pay it, we will not experience the fullness of life in the Kingdom of God.

Today I am not going to talk about what others do to us; I am going to talk about the costly discipleship God asks us to participate in with him.

• David said, “I will not give to God sacrifices that cost me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24)

• Jesus told his disciples to count the cost, as if there was going to be a cost. (Luke 14)

• We are called to “deny yourself, take up your cross” (Matthew 16), “die daily” (1 Corinthians 15), “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12), “discipline your body” (1 Corinthians 9). 

In other words, Jesus calls us to die in the sense of making choices so that the things within us that are evil and destructive die, and that which brings life moves front and center.

Think of the Rich Young Ruler, so close to following Jesus except for that one thing. Jesus asked him if he would embrace poverty if asked, and it was too much. (Mark 10) There was something about his wealth and the life it brought him that was too high of a cost to pay in exchange for life in the Kingdom.

Think of the Sadducees, for whom staying cozy with Rome was far more important than taking Jesus seriously. The miracles done by Jesus and the apostles should have drawn them to hear the truth about Jesus. But if Jesus was who he said he was, the cost was higher than they were willing to pay.

The Pharisees loved purity and holiness (that’s a good thing), but it kept them from loving all their neighbors: the Samaritans, the prostitutes, the tax collector, the leper. The unclean. If following Jesus meant doing the messy work of interacting with the “unclean” up close and personal, it was too high of a cost.

This cost, this dying, is not pain for pain’s sake. It’s the fire of refinement, and refinement is hard but good. What comes out the other side is something purified and true.

“For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness  to the LORD. (Malachi 2:3)

“Everyone will be salted with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt... Have salt in you and be at peace with one another." (Jesus, in Mark 9:49-50)

What shall we do with that imagery of salt and fire? I like the commentary from the Cambridge Commentary For Schools And Colleges:

“Salt, like a subtle flame, penetrates all that is corruptible and separates that which is decaying and foul, whilst it fixes and quickens that which is sound. Fire destroys that which is perishable and thereby establishes the imperishable in its purest perfection, and leads to new and more beautiful forms of being. Thus both effect a kind of transformation.

Now “everyone,” our Lord saith, “shall be salted with fire;” either (1) by his voluntary entering upon a course of self-denial and renunciation of his sins, and so submitting to the purifying fire of self--transformation; or (2) by his being involuntarily salted with the fire of… judgment (Hebrews 10:27; Hebrews 12:29).”

We are going to talk about the first way today. If we aren’t feeling the “purifying fire of self-transformation,”we have stopped short of really embracing what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and this stoppage will take from us the joy of bringing offerings of righteousness to the Lord.

Good news! The Bible shows us what that salt and fire look like, as well as how to apply it. There are ways to purposefully embrace the purifying costliness of our faith for the sake of transformation. Let’s start with an example, then move to principles.

When Paul talked about all the different groups to whom he took the gospel, he noted:

19 For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people…I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some… I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.

He then used an Olympic racing analogy to describe how hard this was:

Each competitor (in a race) must exercise self-control in everything… So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9)

It must have been hard work to get to know others so well in order to “speak their language.” It must have meant surrendering his preferences for how to share the Gospel in light of the best way they could understand the gospel. He had to live with integrity so as to not poison his words. And he did all this so that he could participate in the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 10 he notes,

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.  No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”

Partnering with what God is doing in the world is going to require, work, wisdom, self-control, and self-sacrificial relationships so we can participate in the gospel. We will have to get salted with that purifying fire of transformation. Here are some ideas.

1. Salty Generosity

Jesus was poured out for us; what does it look like to pour out our lives for others? A very practical way is with our resources.

 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. (2 Corinthians 9)

Give money, time, a listening ear, a car ride – whatever your resource is -  for the sake of others. Help those who can’t return the favor. Let them borrow stuff you like. Make it uncomfortable for yourself.

The story is told of the preacher who was invited to preach at a church as part of a fundraising drive for repairing several churches in a parish. One attendee told him, “I could pay to fix one of those churches and not even feel it.” The preacher responded, “Why don’t you fix two and feel it?”

What does it look like to give from whatever provision God has given us until we feel it? And in that uncomfortable space, God does work as we will need to trust on His storehouse of provision.

2. Salty Hospitality

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. (Romans 12)

This could be a cousin to the point I just made. Be practically hospitable by giving people a place at the table in your life or in your home. The table of Jesus should always have an extra seat.

But right now I am thinking about the hospitality of our head and heart. It’s the idea that we give the benefit of the doubt to people; we ascribe the best intentions to them until we are proven wrong.

Someone at church doesn’t talk to you one Sunday. You don’t know why.  Assume good in them and not ill. It might be really hard to deal with the anxiety or fear you have; that’s a great opportunity to give it to Jesus.

You got cut off in that roundabout? Pray that the person driving is okay. Who knows; they may have a family emergency. They might have just gotten terrible news and were distracted. Pray for them.

There is a social media post, and it really gets under your skin. You want to feel the salt of purification? Ascribe the best of intentions to the poster. If you are going to try to read between the lines, write the best narrative you can. If you wonder what the attitude of their heart is, give them the grace that you want others to show you when they are confused.

It’s easy to stew in our own assumptions and judgments, and for most of us, that stew is toxic. When we do the work of cooking with ingredients of generosity, kindness, and hope, it’s a much better meal.

3. Salty Discomfort

Fasting from food is a classic tradition. It’s a way of taking control of our body’s needs. Maybe think of fasting as challenging our bodily urges or earthly desires and focusing on Jesus to bring us peace.

Some people do digital fasting: intentionally go without screens, social media, or streaming to make space for prayer and silence. Maybe it is fasting from instant gratification – waiting for your paycheck to get something you want instead of putting it on a card.

Fasting is not punishment; it’s practice. It trains us to say ‘no’ to lesser things so we can say ‘yes’ to Jesus. Discomfort for Christ now is preparation for faithfulness when we hit even harder times in life.

4. Salty Service

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2)

“Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with the hunble. Do not be conceited.” (Romans 12)

Go regularly into places where you’re not in control or where your social status or reputation doesn’t matter (food banks, prisons, nursing homes, refugee centers, homeless shelters[1]). Commit to relationships with people who can’t “give back” -  the poor, the lonely, the marginalized, the overlooked. Maybe it is short-term or long-term service in a context that stretches your cultural or emotional comfort. Maybe it’s local mission in hard neighborhoods or to groups that make you uncomfortable.

It’s joining Jesus in the margins.  If we want to join Jesus in what he is doing today, we will often find the most tangible evidence where the need is greatest. God offers some transformation in those spaces as we “become all things to all people” because of the gospel, so we can participate in it.

5. Salty Relationships (repentance and forgiveness)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3)

This will require honesty. Confess sin openly to trusted believers. Let them love you, correct you, encourage you, or lead you. Be humbled and lifted up.

Don’t hide from people you have wronged. Move toward them. Humbly. Honestly. Just say, “I’m sorry,” without the need for padding. Commit to not repeating whatever it was that hurt them. Do what is in your power to do for reconciliation.

Don’t reject people who offer you their repentance. Forgive them. Refuse to hold a grudge or nurse bitterness. We will talk more next week about the dynamics of forgiveness, but for today, remember that Jesus calls us to forgive.

Refuse to retaliate. Choose blessing over cursing. Pray for the people you are stewing over in your mind – not imprecatory prayers, but prayers for God to do good, healing work in their lives for their good and His glory.

6. Salty Witness

“As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4)

Live the gospel all the time: that will pave the way for speaking the gospel.

Don’t be ashamed of the gospel even when it is uncomfortable. As much as is possible, live at peace with people, but don’t be afraid to own your faith. When people are talking about life, talk unashamedly about the rhythms of your faith in your life. ‘How can we not speak of what we have seen and heard?’”

Some spaces are meant for listening. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is offer a faithful presence that (hopefully) feels a lot like Jesus. Other times, the Holy Spirit is going to nudge us. Share the gospel when the Holy Spirit tells you it’s time, even if it is awkward or risky socially. Part of being salted is being patient when we want to barge in; the other is being responsive even if we are nervous.

7. Salty Sexuality

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.” (1 Thessalonians 4)

Staying within God’s boundaries in our actions and our hearts is going to test us. It’s…

• surrendering our sexual desires to the lordship and boundaries of Christ

• treating others with honor and thinking of them with honor

• building their dignity in our minds rather than fantasizing about them

• refusing to reduce people to objects of gratification, but refocusing on them as imago dei.

• refusing to take advantage of the bodies of others, but rather insisting that they all leave our presence having felt valued, not used.

I read a definition of chastity that talked about “directing all sexual emotions towards the holy dignity of the person.” If you let that fire salt you, the ‘you’ that emerges will be safe, honorable and holy (set apart from the world) in a beautiful way.

8. Salty Communication

One of our greatest areas for the potential work of God’s purifying fire to do its salty work is in the area of our words.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4)

 [The tongue] is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. (James 3)

If we want to be uncomfortable, tested, challenged, made to explore our hearts, surrender our opinions to God, work on self-control, and practice hospitable thoughts for others, this is a really great area of life for that.

There are things we must say as Christians that are necessary (truth, the gospel). There are things we can’t say if we want to follow Jesus well (slander, gossip, and lies). Then, Paul said there were things that were permissible but not beneficial or constructive.

Every word we speak is either building a bridge or burning one. If Jesus is Lord of our hearts, he must also be Lord of our tongues. If we want to get refined by a fire that will burn us into maturity, this is a really, really, really good one.

9. Salty Disciplines

“People do not drift toward holiness.” (D.A. Carson)

This is #1-#8. Spiritual disciplines will do a salty work in us. Let me add some classics.

It’s early morning prayer when you’d rather sleep, or praying instead of listening to music while you are driving. It’s studying Scripture when your mind wants to be scrolling. It’s embracing silence and solitude to talk with Jesus and appreciate God’s creation when you want noise and distraction.

Spiritual disciplines are not hoops to jump through—they’re habits that shape who we are becoming. Discipline is the training ground where desire for Christ becomes delight in Christ.

* * * * *

Yes, following Jesus costs us something. We need to be salted with the refiner’s fire. But the refining is never for our destruction; it’s for the destruction of that which is sinful in us, and that’s a good thing.

Jesus promised that those who lose their life for His sake will find it. That means that on the other side of the cost is the reward of a life marked by peace, joy, and love that this world cannot take away. The abundant life of the Kingdom is not only good for us—it overflows to bless our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies.

When we embrace costly Christianity, we become a living testimony to a watching world that Jesus is real, that His Spirit transforms, and that His Kingdom is breaking in even now.

__________________________________________________________________________________

[1] See Matthew 25

The Acts of the Apostles: Implementing the Kingdom of God (Acts 1)

Acts was written between 60 and 90 AD. It was written after all of Paul’s letters and after Luke wrote the gospel of Luke. It recounts the early history of the church.

To a lover of God, Theophilus: In my first book, I recounted the events of Jesus’ life—His actions, His teachings—  from the beginning of His life until He was taken up into heaven. After His great suffering and vindication, He showed His apostles that He was alive—appearing to them repeatedly over a period of 40 days, giving them many convincing proofs of His resurrection. 

As before, He spoke constantly of the kingdom of God. During these appearances, He had instructed His chosen messengers through the Holy Spirit, prohibiting them from leaving Jerusalem, but rather requiring them to wait there until they received what He called “the promise of the Father.”

 “This is what you heard Me teach— that just as John ritually cleansed people with water through baptism, so you will be washed with the Holy Spirit very soon.” When they had gathered just outside Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives, they asked Jesus, “Is now the time, Lord—the time when You will reestablish Your kingdom in our land of Israel?

Jesus replied,” The Father, on His own authority, has determined the ages and epochs of history, but you have not been given this knowledge.  Here’s the knowledge you need: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be My witnesses, first here in Jerusalem, then beyond to Judea and Samaria, and finally to the farthest places on earth.” (Acts 1:1-8)

If you were here for our series in the Gospels, you may remember that Jesus taught a lot about the Kingdom of God. He also spent a lot of time correcting the misconceptions of what the Kingdom of God was going to look like.

• It wasn’t going to be characterized by legalism, which is how the Pharisees were trying to coax the Messiah to come.

• It wasn’t going to be ushered in with a violent sword, like the Zealots were trying to make happen.

• And it certainly wasn’t going to happen by blending with the Empire, like the Sadducees were doing.

Here is Jesus, raised from the dead, and his disciples are still confused about what is going to happen. But Jesus is patient and kind, so he teaches some more. I love his short explanation: “This is all you need – you will get the Holy Spirit, and then go witness.” I really wish I could have seen the expression on the disciple’s faces. This doesn’t sound like the way to establish a kingdom. And go to the Samaritans and Romans? Really? They are going to be in the Kingdom?

I was downstate doing some teaching for an organization called LEAD, which trains high schoolers on how to be faithfully present as followers of Jesus in business, entertainment, journalism, and government. I got there Wednesday and checked into my room on the campus of Spring Arbor University. I organized all my stuff and went to teach my first class. When I got back, my key would not unlock my door. So I texted Joe, the head honcho, and explained that my key didn’t work.

He sent a Spring Arbor security guy to help me, but that guy couldn’t find me. You know why? I was in the wrong dorm. Fortunately, the security guy found me and we figured it out. I texted Joe:

“It’s so weird how the little things like being in the right building can make such a big difference!”

He texted back,

“On no. Did I give bad directions?”

I said,

“You gave me great directions. I followed them poorly.”

Jesus gave his disciples great directions on how to act. As we get into the book Acts, they will indeed take Jesus’ directions seriously.

Two things stand out to me as important to know in a broad overview: the many speeches introducing the kingdom of God, and the way in which their lives embodied the Kingdom of God.

SPEECHES/SERMONS

There are a ton of speeches primarily from Peter, Stephen and Paul. The primary focus is:

·  Jesus as a Resurrected Lord (Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 13:30) In his epistles, Paul insists that the bodily resurrection of Jesus must be true, or the whole thing collapses.

·  Jesus as Righteous Judge (Acts 10:42, Acts 17:31: “He has set a day when he will judge the world with justice…” [1] The judging carries the idea of sorting or sifting – Jesus will separate that is righteous from what is unrighteous.[2]

·  The importance of Repentance and Forgiveness (Acts 2:38, 3:19, 10:43, 13:38)

·  The Kingdom of God (Acts 8:12, 28:23, 28:31) They have had a loooooot of teaching about this. There’s not a lot of detail. The text just notes they talked about it a lot, as if the Good News was about far more than life in the world to come; it’s about a Kingdom of Heaven that is here, now.

As they pass on the teaching they received, we will see an interesting variety in how they present the Good News of the Kingdom to Gentiles vs. Jews. I think it’s worth looking at this because it is a good reminder that the first evangelists took different approaches to different audiences.

Speaking to Jews or God-fearers (e.g., Acts 2, 3, 13)

• Jesus as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, because this audience gave weight to the Old Testament books. Lots of Scriptural proofs from the Law, Prophets, Psalms.

• Emphasis on Abraham, Moses, David, three of their national heroes.

• Israel’s covenant history with God to focus on a shared historical and national identity. Paul in Acts 13 recounts Israel’s history from Egypt to David to Jesus. “What God promised our ancestors  he has fulfilled for us.”

• Messianic expectations. Jesus’ resurrection is confirmation of Jesus’ messianic identity, even if people were expecting a different kind of Messiah.

• Call to repentance (“turning around”) for having rejected Jesus. This is often an appeal to them as a group: "You crucified the Messiah," even though likely nobody in their audience physically did that. This makes sense in a shame/honor culture where identity was established in community. It’s not that individuals don’t repent – that happens all the time. It’s just that there is another layer, a call to a community repentance from a shared responsibility that the community failed to carry out.

Let’s say I’m Peter from a moment. You are the audience of Jewish people and God-fearing Gentiles. A typical speech is going to sound something like this.

"Fellow believers, you know the Scriptures and the prophets. You believe in the God who called Abraham, who led our ancestors through the sea, who spoke through Moses and David and Isaiah and who entered into a covenant with us.

God has fulfilled His covenant promise through Jesus. God revealed himself fully in Jesus by healing the broken, forgiving sinners, welcoming outsiders, speaking truth with authority. Everything the prophets said the Messiah would do—he did.

But we wanted a Messiah who would affirm our religiosity, not challenge it. We wanted a Messiah who reject those Samaritans and pagans and pat the righteous - us -  on the back. We wanted a king with a sword, not a crown of thorns.

So we killed him. But God raised him from the dead as the firstborn from the dead, proof that death itself has been defeated. And now he is exalted—seated at the right hand of God. He has poured out the Holy Spirit of God This isn’t the end of the story—it’s the beginning of the restoration of all things.

Repent. The cornerstone we rejected? God has made him the foundation of new covenant. Turn to him, and you’ll find your sins forgiven, your heart renewed, and your place in the kingdom secured by the free grace of God.

You were baptized with John’s baptism. Now, be baptized as a way of dying and rising with Christ. Enter into new life, and receive the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in you. This is the time the prophets and Jesus spoke of—the time of God’s favor, of restoration, when God is beginning to make all things new.

When Speaking to Gentiles (e.g., Acts 14, 17), the goal doesn’t change, but the approach does.

• They start with the Creation of the cosmos, God as universal Lord of all things, and the brotherhood of mankind. Paul at Athens (Acts 17) quotes Greek poets to note that, “We are his offspring.”

•  They don’t quote Jewish scripture, because the Gentiles didn’t trust or care about that source. It’s more philosophical or natural-theology approach to start.

• There is often a discussion of idolatry and its futility. At this point in Greco-Roman history, they were having their own theological crises as they were developing this growing realization that their pantheon of gods couldn’t actually be gods because they were so bad. Paul doesn’t pile on to their mistake. He acknowledges the religious urge in people, and claims that it is misplaced. He invited them to turn from idols to the true God.

• Jesus’ Resurrection was a sign of coming justice/righteousness. The language implies a sorting and revealing of what is righteous and what is not. Justice/righteousness prevailed in the end for all. Jesus, not Zeus is Caesar, is the appointed Judge to oversee this.

Let’s say I’m Paul for a moment. You are an audience of Greeks and Romans without the background knowledge that Jewish people had. A typical speech is going to sound something like this.

People of this city, listen to me for a moment. I come not to condemn you, but to proclaim something that will change your life. I’m here to tell you about Unknown God to whom you have built alters. This God you’re reaching for is not far from any of you.

He is the one who made everything—the earth beneath your feet and the sky above your head. From one blood, He made all the nations of the earth. As your poets note, we are all his offspring. He gives life and breath and meaning to every one of us. He doesn’t need anything from us; instead, he provides for us.

You believe the gods step into the world at times. The Creator God I am telling you about stepped into our world with healing and mercy and love. Many of you heard at least rumors of him. His name is Jesus.

He walked among us doing righteousness and justice while loving mercy —feeding the hungry, forgiving sinners, confronting the hypocrite, insisting that we love each other well. He told the truth about the Kingdom of God that he offered to all. And for that, he was executed—hung on a cross like a criminal.

But hear me: God raised him from the dead. The risen Jesus appeared to hundreds, and he also revealed himself to me. Though I persecuted his followers, God did not destroy me. He forgave me and filled me with His righteousness.

This risen Jesus is not just a prophet. He is the King of all kings, the Judge of all nations, the Restorer of all things. He is coming again to bring ultimate justice for the oppressed, peace for the weary, and restoration for all who long for it.

God is calling every person, everywhere to change direction—to turn from false gods, whether idols made of stone or ones built in our hearts. So what must you do? Turn from your idols. Trust in Jesus. There is a kingdom breaking in, and its King is Jesus.

When we get to the individual speeches, we will dive into them. For now, let these two different approaches remind us that there is wisdom in knowing your audience. From the beginning of the church, we have a tradition of not requiring that everyone use the same approach or say the same thing all the time. We don’t even need to have the same target audience. It’s okay to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as we consider whom we are talking to. It’s also okay not to demand others seek out the same audience and use the same approach as we do. We are on the same team 

I get worried when I see followers of Jesus insisting that their way of spreading the gospel is THE way of spreading the gospel. Their way of being building Kingdom outposts in culture is THE way. Their way of building the church is THE way. Can we let each other respond to how the Holy Spirit moves us to represent Jesus?

The second thing we will see in Acts in the lifestyle of the early church, the practical implementation of the Kingdom of God. It is, after all, about the acts of the apostles. They were committed to saying and doing things that revealed the kingdom. You can count the public speakers in Acts on one hand. They were important, but history shows us that the early church grew because their lives spoke even more loudly than their words.

They developed communal habits in which everybody took care of each other, sharing money and resources freely. They took care of everyone’s poor, sick, orphaned and widowed. They accepted those rejected by Roman society. In their setting, it was slaves, women, the poor, and the oppressed. When the Holy Spirit descends, God blesses all people and nations into one community, a “new humanity”, so that social barriers or judgments of all kinds fell away. (The people groups in Acts on whom ‘tongues of fire” descend are the same ones separated after the Tower of Babel.)

The church will expand not because Paul was eloquent, but because Billy the butcher treated customers fairly, and Sally the seamstress quietly cared for her customers, and the farmers Fred and Frieda shared their crops with the hungry, and the nurses Nancy and Nathan cared for the babies of Jews and Gentiles alike, and tentmakers Tricia and Terry made some free tents for the poor because the rich in their church gave money to make that happen.

They supported widows, orphans, the sick and disabled. They ransomed people from slavery. Churches helped each other out when they were in trouble. Loving actions toward all saturated the church in the first three centuries.

 Tertullian (160-240) reported that the Romans would exclaim, “See how they love one another!”

 Justin Martyr (100-165) sketched Christian love this way:

“We who used to value the acquisition of wealth and possessions more than anything else now bring what we have into a common fund and share it with anyone who needs it. We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associate with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.”

Clement (150-215), describing a follower of Jesus, wrote,

“He impoverishes himself out of love, so that he is certain he may never overlook a brother in need, especially if he knows he can bear poverty better than his brother. He likewise considers the pain of another as his own pain. And if he suffers any hardship because of having given out of his own poverty, he does not complain.”

The Emperor Julian complained that,

“it is disgraceful when no Jew ever has to beg and the impious Christians support both their own poor and ours as well.”

During a third century plague, while their Roman neighbors were throwing sick family members into the street, Christians cared for the them, and sometimes gave their lives for them. Christians eventually began to formally provide medical care for all. The Council of Nicea in 325 declared that medical care should be provided everywhere churches were opened.

The story is told that when an actor became a Christian, but he realized he had to quit because most plays had a lot of immorality and idolatry. Cyprian (210-258) told the local church that they should support him until he could figure out what to do.  Furthermore, “If your church is financially unable to support him, he may move over to us and here receive whatever he needs for food and clothing.”

Jesus had said, “Love your enemies … and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44), and they were determine to do that. Lactantius (250-325) wrote,

“If we all derive our origin from one man, whom God created, we are plainly all of one family. Therefore it must be considered an abomination to hate another human, no matter how guilty he may be. For this reason, God has decreed that we should hate no one, but that we should eliminate hatred.

So we can comfort our enemies by reminding them of our mutual relationship. For if we have all been given life from the same God, what else are we but brothers? … Because we are all brothers, God teaches us to never do evil to one another, but only good, giving aid to those who are oppressed and experiencing hardship, and giving food to the hungry.”

To those the Empire insisted didn’t matter, those who were denied justice, provision, and care, God’s people always stepped in and said, “Hey! You matter!” [3]

If the good news of the Kingdom of God does not cause poor, the sick, the outcast, the powerless and oppressed to say, “Thank God the Christians are here!” then it’s not the kingdom of God that has come to a community.

These two things – the speeches and the lifestyle – and going to come up again and again in the book of Acts. What we say and what we do matters. Who we are as followers of Jesus has profound consequences.

How we are present in the world is witness to something. May it be a witness to Jesus.

Shepherd of tender youth, guiding in love and truth
Through devious ways; Christ our triumphant King,
We come Thy name to sing, and here our children bring
To join Thy praise.

Thou art our holy Lord, O all subduing Word,
Healer of strife. Thou didst Thyself abase
That from sin’s deep disgrace Thou might save our race
And give us life.

Shepherd of Tender Youth (Clement of Alexandria in about 200 A.D.)

_____________________________________________________________________________

[1] The judgment in these sermons seems to have a different than what we call Hell, as Gehenna is never mentioned, and Hades only twice, and that when the writer quotes Psalm 16 in Acts 2 about how Jesus was not abandoned there. That topic comes up other places in the New Testament, of course, but the Acts speeches do not include it.

[2] Think of the Parable of the  Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13.

[3] There are a lot of places on line to find lists of what was said about the early Christians. I got this list from “A Love Without Condition.” Earlychurch.com

He, Too, Saved Israel (Judges 3)

We’ve been hearing in the past few weeks from Luke about how Jesus stressed the importance of valuing people who seem unimportant, unvaluable, maybe even bad. We have talked about the Great Reversal:

“Those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Luke 13) 

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14) 

This is kind of the flip side of the coin, but it reminds me of other places where Scripture gives a really, really low priority to seeking earthly glory. 

“Do you think I care about the approval of men or about the approval of God? Do you think I am on a mission to please people? If I am still spinning my wheels trying to please men, then there is no way I can be a servant of the Anointed One, the Liberating King.” (Galatians 1) 

“That’s why it is hard to see how true faith is even possible for you: you are consumed by the approval of other men, longing to look good in their eyes; and yet you disregard the approval of the one true God.” (John 5:44) 

I’ve been thinking about this because it’s graduation season.

When I started teaching, I realized pretty quickly that graduates were often flooded with messages about how amazing they are supposed to be now, with “amazing” typically meaning that they chase after cultural markers of glory, value and importance. “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” I actually like that Dr. Seuss’s poem acknowledges the ups and downs and life, but the ending seems inevitable: you’ll move mountains that everyone will notice and applaud you for.

I’m not sure that’s the best message. It’s rare to hear a message that one of the most important “places you’ll go” is being a good friend, or volunteering to help those in poverty, or simply being a good parent or employee, or leading a small group at church, or being part of Big Brother/Big Sister, or babysitting kids for overwhelmed parents, or offering free help in your area of expertise, or simply being kind.

And yet there are mountains that need moving in someone’s life for which those are the tools. The Empire might not think it’s important, but I promise you the Kingdom does.

One of the books of the Bible that fascinates me is the book of Judges. It shows a cycle of God’s faithfulness to his unfaithful people, but that’s not what I’m thinking of today. It gives such different coverage to the Judges in a way that I think is meant to be revelatory about how God intends for us to think about our lives. It’s Old Testament – we don’t have time to unpack how to hear these stories like the original audience would have heard them – but some day we’ll get to these. But, here’s the story as found in Judges 3. 

“Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD [they were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years), and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud… The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.  Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.

He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it.  At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king."  The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.

Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,  Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly... Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.  Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. 

While [the servants assumed Eglon was taking his good old time in the bathroom], Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. 

"Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.  That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Y’all, give it up for Ehud. Three cheers and a whole bunch of paragraphs for Ehud!

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel. (Judges 3: 15-31)

For some context:

Judges 4-5 – Deborah gets two chapters and a song (Shamgar gets, like, a ‘shout out’.)

Judges 6-8  - Gideon gets three chapters

Judges 9 - Abimelech gets a chapter (and he killed his own brothers, which seems like it should count against him)

Judges 11 and 12 – Jepthah gets two chapters (he made a terrible oath he should never have kept and ended up sacrificing his daughter)

Judges 13-16 – Samson gets 4 chapters, and he was hardly a role model.

Judges 3 - Shamgar gets one verse that almost sounds like it should be read with a yawn. 

Then we get some other references similar to the reference to Shamgar:

Judges 10: 1-5 “…a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys.”

Tola rose to save Israel (cool!) and apparently did (?) and then the next guy had a lot of donkeys. Hmmm. Keep in mind, the beginning of Judges notes this:

“Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.”

If you were a judge at all, God himself had raised you up to save His people, and He was with you as long as you lived. And some of them have their stories recorded for all the world to read, and some of them got a nod and a retirement watch.

Let’s say you’re Shamgar; you saved your nation by killing 600 enemy warriors with a big stick with a pointy end, and you basically get an “atta boy.” That’s like...

• giving a history of the NBA, and then saying, “And Michael Jordan also played basketball.” 

• or discussing a history of music, and saying of Beethoven, “He too wrote music.” 

• or saying of Ohio State, “They too had a football team.”

Tola and Jair were raised up by God himself, and all they get is that they lived, they died, and their sons rode donkeys from town to town, which seems like bit of really unnecessary trivia.

Today, when people are treated like this, they go on TV and say things like, “I’m being disrespected.”  We are a culture that increasingly seems to think that we all deserve our 15 minutes of fame, and if it doesn’t happen naturally, well, there are always reality shows, and YouTube, and blogs. Ashleigh Brilliant once wrote, “All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.”  To whatever degree that’s funny, it’s probably because it is an accurate reflection of the natural human condition.

I think the Biblical narratives of stories like these point us toward a hard reality in the Christian walk:  Sometimes, God will raise us up, and use us mightily, and it will not be noticed, and we will never get the credit we think we deserve.   

Unsung Heroes, by Riva Pomerantz 

I was delighted when my husband bought a beautiful name plaque for our front door... until I noticed the door. Years of fingerprints, remnants of gummy tape, stickers, and I don’t even want to think about what else, had etched themselves onto the once-white door. A quick glance from beautiful nameplate to horrifying door brought me to the only possible conclusion: clean the door. 

So two hours later, the door was sparkling white and the nameplate was handsomely ensconced in its center. When my kids got up in the morning and saw the complete metamorphosis of the front door, they were—of course—awed.“Look Daddy!” they told my husband. “They cleaned the door.” My husband told me of their reaction with some amusement. 

“They cleaned the door?” I practically yelled. “They is me! I cleaned the door! What do they think? Magic fairies come while we all sleep and clean the furniture, put away the toys, bake cookies...” So in the grand scheme of door-cleaning, I remain an unsung hero.

Unsung heroes. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is this role of unsung hero, because we have in us a drive to be noticed, to stand out, to be somebody in the eyes of other people.

For one, it’s hard for us to watch other people around us be ‘successful’ (by whose standard?) when we aren’t.

• Have you ever been playing a sport, and you are really struggling, but the rest of your team isn’t, and your team is still winning, but you have a hard time being excited because you personally aren’t doing so well?

• Have you ever gotten upset when the person who shares a testimony about God saving them from a particular sin or overcoming a tough circumstance in life, and everyone cheers and affirms them, and then invites them to speak in front of other groups, and they become a widely-known role model everyone admires, and you think, “Hey, that’s my story too, but no one knows…” 

• Or…there is a lot to feel good about in your life, but it’s not, “I was in a gang of cannibal human traffickers,” so you never get the spotlight. It’s more like, “I have struggled most of my life with low self-esteem – maybe even self-loathing – and I think I am finally starting to see myself as Jesus sees me.” And it’s hugely important. It’s life-changing. This healing is not only changing you, it’s changing how you are a friend, a child, a parent, an, employer, a sibling.

There are two equally subtle and dangerous temptations: to think you are just not important and no one can benefit from learning what God has done in our life, or that you are super important and everyone should know about what YOU have done in your life Both thoughts are toxic.

But the Bible is clear: In the Kingdom of God, God’s validation is the only validation we need.  

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  

I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4) 

The point is not that you should never do good deeds in public, and the point isn’t that people who do charity out of selfish ambition are going to hell. The point is that if you do good things in a really public way for the reward of the praise of people, you will get your reward. It just won’t be that great. It feels good in the moment, but it feeds an addiction for validation. Someone once said,

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.”

The applause of people is nothing compared to the rewards of the Father. An example from the Apostle Paul:

 “The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.” (2 Timothy 4:17) 

If Paul were alive today, we would all clamor to read the book or see the movie about his deliverance from lions, we would ask him to be on GodTube for an interview about the lions…but I suspect Paul would quickly lose his “celebrity” status, as he would ignore the lions and talk about the Lord who gave him the strength to fully proclaim the Good News to the world.  If he ever mentioned it, there would be one small comment or one small footnote that would start off,“Around the time I was delivered from lions...”

My hunch is that Paul knew that a story about Paul being delivered from the lions was going to become a story about Paul, not about the One who delivered Paul.  And in the kingdom of heaven, if the story glorifies us, why tell the story? 

Back to Paul. When Paul does talk about himself in the Bible, it is because his audience had become so caught up in Christian Celebrity Worship that Paul basically said, “Okay, if you want to play that game, I win. Here are my credentials.  Now settle down and get back to the things that matter most.” (See 2 Corinthians 10 and 11) Here’s a practical example of something Paul wrote in Philippians 4:22.

All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.” 

Who converted a lot of Caesar’s household after Caesar threw him into jail in the Preattorian barracks attached to the palace? That would be Paul. How easily Paul could have written, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those I converted from Caesar’s household in spite of intense persecution to my personal self.”  But the story is not about Paul. There was no need for him to worry about whether or not people knew about what he did.  God knew, and that was enough.[1]

So the question today is this,

Can I live my life with no regard for the glory and recognition of others, but with complete focus on faithfulness and obedience to Christ wherever He leads me?

Are we willing to take the time to let God help us build our character –to address sin in our lives, and character flaws, and quirks that are maybe hindering our relationship with God and others – are we willing to do that when maybe no one will ever really notice?

Are we willing to work really hard to be a godly spouses and parents – setting priorities on our time, putting the needs of our spouse and kids above our wants, doing whatever we can to steward our household – are we willing to do that - and see it as part of our high calling in Jesus which has immense importance?

Can we go out of our way to volunteer – in kid’s ministry or nursery or committee work or cleaning the building or in the community - can we do that cheerfully even if nobody sees and applauds the way those moments are changing lives in ways that ripple into eternity?

Can we love the people who seem unlovable, embrace the people who seem unembraceable, forgive those around us who have done things that seem unforgivable…that’s hard enough, but can we do it knowing we might never get a pat on the back on this side of heaven?

Can we be broken, and spilled out, in the service of Christ, for our spouses, and our kids, and our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, those people who make us take up a cross…Can we do that even if the only time we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is on the other side of the grave?

What does a life look like…what does the world look like…when we embrace this view of the kingdom of God?

Maybe your life will be written in lights. And if so, and it was God who wanted your story known, then tell your story to the glory of God.  It’s not like Deborah and Gideon were bad people because their story was told. And I’m not suggesting we don’t try to give people honest recognition for their kindness and service.

It’s just that that won’t happen to everybody, and maybe the record of your life will be of the “He too saved Israel” variety.

Maybe “She, too, wrestled with/overcame addictions,” will be the most people say about you, which will never capture why that started in the first place and how profoundly hard the struggle was .

Maybe “He, too, had a family,” is the most that will register with people, which will never capture the self-sacrificial love that was necessary to make your family a success.

Maybe “She, too, overcame a difficult past,” is the most people will know about you, which will never do justice to the pain you experienced, and the long, slow process of healing that God has taken you through.

Maybe “They, too, were in ministry,” is all that people will note about you someday, which will never reflect the years of your life spent in quietly helping those who so desperately needed Jesus.

Maybe, “She, too, got out of bed yet again and did the next thing right,” is your legacy, and it will be profound by Kingdom standards.

Maybe, “They, too, didn’t know what to do with their life, but they knew how to live the day well,” resonates with you, and you are heroic in your faithfulness.

Maybe, “He, too, was such a good friend” is the primary eulogy at the end of your life, and that short sentence will capture a lifetime of kingdom witness that the Holy Spirit used to move mountains in people’s lives. Maybe “the places you’ll go” was too the side of other people, and all of heaven rejoiced.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, we have a Heavenly Father who is waiting for the day when we will enter into His presence.  And on that day, millions of unsung heroes will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward.”

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[1] Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6: “You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else…”