12.29- We who are the children of God

 12.29-

 

We who are the children of God and followers of Jesus will have many people who are against us.  They will be negative and even slanderous toward us and that is to be expected.  Jesus taught His disciples to not be surprised at this.

 

Jesus said that those who are not against us are for us.  We need to take the daily life with Him as one where many who are not devout followers will still be happy to leave us alone to our good work with Him without opposing us.

 

On the other hand there will be some who will call us troublemakers.  They will oppose us even if we are well aligned with Jesus.  When someone opposes us it is good to do a good self exam to make sure we are not off track and doing something Jesus wouldn’t want us doing.  If we are aligned with Him then we need not be overly concerned about opposition.  Jesus said we need to just persevere when people oppose us because of His word.

 

We believe that people need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to do their work.

 

We need to speak boldly and with power for the benefit of those we are teaching.

 

We realize that there will be people who pretend to be Spirit filled followers who are phony.  That is a choice each person must make to be sincere or phony.  False prophets and false teachers will be observed by their fruit according to the teaching of Jesus.

 

Some followers believe that the things that have damaged them in the past should be completely destroyed.  I can understand that because of certain bad memories and dangers those things can represent.  Some of burned books and bottles of alcohol as an example.

 

There are certain businesses that will be affected by the good news of Jesus as the Messiah.  Some Jewish people will be happy to acknowledge Him and some will be jealous and consider us as trouble makers.

 

Any business that depends upon lies and deception will be negatively affected by training people to be people of truth.

 

The abuse of people which happens in some businesses will be changed because of the influence of Jesus Christ coming into nation or a city.

 

When things have been organized around a false god and the message of the true God comes in to that location there will be a shift in the message and some discomfort and even chaos can be a temporary outcome.  This is no surprise to those who read Jesus life closely.

 

Nations have courts to settle the chaos.  We as followers need to do all we can to be a people of peace in spite of these realities which can be unsettling at times.

 

Larry Wishard

12.19.20

 

 

Acts 19

19 Now it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. ² He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “On the contrary, we have not even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized ^[a]in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

⁸ And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, having discussions and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of ^[b]the Way before the ^[c]people, he withdrew from them and took the disciples away with him, and had discussions daily in the school of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This took place for two years, so that all who lived in ^[d]Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Miracles at Ephesus

¹¹ God was performing extraordinary ^[e]miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. ¹³ But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to ^[f]use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!” ¹⁴ Now there were seven sons of ^[g]Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit responded and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. ¹⁸ Also many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. ¹⁹ And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they added up the prices of ^[h]the books and found it to be fifty thousand ^[i]pieces of silver. ²⁰ So ^[j]the word of the Lord was growing and prevailing mightily.

²¹ Now after these things were finished, Paul resolved in ^[k]the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” ²² And after he sent into Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in ^[l]Asia for a while.

²³ About that time ^[m]a major disturbance occurred in regard to ^[n]the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of ^[o]Artemis, was bringing ^[p]considerable ^[q]business to the craftsmen; ²⁵ he gathered these men together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity ^[r]depends upon this business. ²⁶ You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of ^[s]Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that ^[t]gods made by hands are not gods at all. ²⁷ Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess ^[u]Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of ^[v]Asia and the ^[w]world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.”

²⁸ When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began shouting, saying, “Great is ^[x]Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s Macedonian traveling companions. ³⁰ And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ Also some of the ^[y]Asiarchs who were friends of his sent word to him and repeatedly urged him not to ^[z]venture into the theater. ³² So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the ^[aa]assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know ^[ab]for what reason they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd ^[ac]concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is ^[ad]Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵ After quieting the crowd, the town clerk *said, “Men of Ephesus, what person is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great ^[ae]Artemis and of the image which fell down from ^[af]the sky? ³⁶ So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session and ^[ag]proconsuls are available; have them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the ^[ah]lawful ^[ai]assembly. ⁴⁰ For indeed, we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real reason for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹ After saying this he dismissed the ^[aj]assembly.