Tag Archives: Acts 17

A fresh air blowing…

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Faith opens all the windows to God’s wind….

(G Macdonald – 1824-1905: Diary of an Old Soul)

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

(Gen 2.7)

I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said,  “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!… I will make breath enter you and you will come to life… Then you will know that I am the Lord.'”

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet..

(Ezek 37. 3-6,9&10)

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

(Jn 3.6-8)

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else… God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

(Acts 17.24-28)

As I sit to write today, the windows are open all over the house, and there is a steady sound of wind and sea blowing in, it makes my heart dance to hear it and to smell the fresh air wherever I go. We instinctively know that it is not good for us to live in sealed boxes, that we need air and the refreshing power of wind to invigorate our senses.

The wind itself gives us a powerful picture of God’s spirit at work in the world; Jesus’ words point out that we cannot see either one, and yet we clearly see their impact as they pass! I believe that ever since I was first able to acknowledge Jesus as Lord of my life, this Spirit has been a constant presence, a power of transformation as God makes me new and more Christ-like day by day. I also believe that I can and should reflect on the work of the Spirit – in the way that we go from room to room in our houses and decide where the air is stale and where there is danger of mould setting in!

The breath of life is God at work to make dead bones live, to bring humanity out of the sin-death in which it is bound and to revive it for a glorious future in the new creation. The breath of life is also God at work in his children, like a diligent housekeeper, seeking those places where transformation is yet to be realised, those rooms which have been closed against Him thus far, or where the dust has been allowed to accumulate and the air to grow stale.

Bear with me, the picture is a little flippant, but the point is valid… as I reflect on my life, I ask the Lord to show me where I am resisting the work of that Spirit of life and transformation; I ask to recognise those things which I am keeping out of his reach, in case I should be asked to do something about them!

I ask the Lord to show me those things which are lurking like mouldy newspapers, in a corner of my life, so much rubbish but also potentially dangerous to my faith if I neglect to deal with them.

I ask the Lord to breathe transforming power into my vision of him, so that as I see the love, power and beauty of Christ, my courage is renewed, my hope strengthened, and my desire to serve him revived, so that I cannot rest until I am active in sharing the gospel.

 O Lord Jesus, let me throw the windows wide. Blow through me with life and vigour and stir me up to fresh zeal and eagerness to serve you and glorify you and to delight in you. Breath of life itself, permeate all my inner chambers and fill them with the clean and wholesome airs of your truth, power and faithfulness. Make my house sing!

How shall they hear?

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The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got – all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols….”It is plain to see that you Athenians takeyour religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.

(Acts17)

This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God – “Jesus is my Master” – embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation…It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help….but how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if  nobody tells them?

(Romans 10)

Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you’re living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.

(1Peter 3)

All from The Message – the New Testament in contemporary language

When Paul stood up in the Areopagus in Athens, to direct the attention of this diverse and intelligently curious people to the ‘unknown god’ whom they worshipped, he faced a major challenge. Which language should he use?

As a Pharisee – a teacher of the Jewish law – he was skilled in using all the technical language which grows up around faith and the literature on which that faith is built. The terminology was second nature to him, and he was adept in drawing on scripture for his arguments. In his new life as an apostle, and a church-planter and teacher, these skills were hugely significant, equipping him to articulate and elucidate all the implications of the coming of Jesus Christ as the long- awaited Messiah.

But as he moved further from Jerusalem, and as the Holy Spirit moved him further from Jewish populations, he had to articulate and teach faith to people who had no background in the books and culture of Judaism, and no family history of observance to inform their understanding. Paul had to learn new ways to communicate this world-changing faith, this good news about Jesus Christ, which would be understood by people of completely different religious backgrounds. His speech to the Athenians as recorded in Acts 17 is one such attempt, and is often cited as a model for evangelistic addresses in places where there is no history of christian faith (and he didn’t hesitate to call for repentance in light of coming judgement!)

In studying this passage with folk at church recently, we agreed that in order to effectively share our faith with our neighbours – a thing we agree is right – we need to purge our speech of all the technical jargon which followers of Jesus tend to adopt. We need to have thought clearly about what is meant by salvation, about the incarnation and the divinity of Jesus, about resurrection and sanctification – all these big words which we use so lightly!

It can be helpful to read regularly in versions of the bible such as the Message, because they use contemporary language for complex concepts, and we learn how to express ourselves in the words of daily life when sharing our faith. I was challenged by this study, to think how readily I talk in an almost coded ‘faith-speak’ which would be incomprehensible to a person without a long experience of the bible. In the same way that I lack the knowledge to ‘read’ ancient religious mosaics, so my hearers will fail to understand me. I may well be speaking truth, but the message isn’t getting through!

If I am serious about sharing the good news of a new start in life, a real healing for brokenness and hope for the future, then for the sake of my neighbours, I need to put in the work and learn to talk simply and courteously about Jesus.

How shall they come to faith in God, if no one tells them about him? And if the words I use, and the life I live is too remote from their experience of daily life, then they will not hear, no matter how earnestly I speak to them.

May I become in this more like Jesus, who lived among us, full of grace and truth, and in his words and actions, spoke directly to the hearts of his hearers.