Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 5:33-43 (September 30, 2025)

September 30, 2025:  Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 5:33-43

Good afternoon my dear friends. May the Love of Christ our Savior, surround you throughout today, and always. I am apologizing that today's Bible Study is late getting out to you. I have had a virus of some sort that started on Monday morning and has continued today. I am very achy and apparently exhausted from hours of sitting in my recliner doing a lot of nothing. So… I slept in this morning!

Today please pray for Debbie's husband Jeff as he has surgery. That is happening right now as I write this study. Also keep Teri in your prayers. She has her hip replacement tomorrow. It is a new procedure with a custom manufactured hip to fit her exactly. Her surgery will take 6-8 hours tomorrow. Please also pray for Ron and his brother Chris as they return from taking care of their brother's estate on the East Coast. God's speed for them as they return home via San Antonio, Oregon, and then finally back home to Tucson. Their brother worked at the Pentagon and was there the day of the major terrorist attack that included a plane flying into the building there as well.

Today we continue in chapter 5 of the Acts of the Apostles. Surprisingly we are met by Gamaliel who was not a supporter of the Jesus cult disciples, but who felt strongly that by acting against what the Sanhedrin did not fully understand could place them in a situation where they are acting not just against the disciples of Jesus, but against God Himself, thereby placing them in opposition to YHWH at a time when there was already enough upheaval at the hands of the Romans.  Once again, the Sanhedrin lets them go. The passage then goes on to talk about all the people who were jailed or killed who proclaimed themselves to be the Messiah of God. And as we know, Christ's disciples were not immediately destroyed as they claimed not their own priority in the world, but that of their resurrected Master. Of course, eventually these disciples did die, some at the hands of the Romans, and others at the violence of their own people, and several of old age. However, in all their lives they only proclaimed Christ as the heart of their belief, and as His witnesses, they knew that what they shared with people was the absolute truth. Serving the Truth of God, meant that they also had been kept safe by Him over the years of their lives. Not only would they themselves bear the cross of Christ, but they would also bear His crown then, and on into their eternal life.

The heart and core of this passage is about what happened when others tried to take the mantle of reform and renewal in the Jewish community. They were jailed, or destroyed, which proved that they were not who they claimed to be. Today in the Church, (church too) there are many different denominations who claim Christ as their Lord and Savior. However, the "truth" that some share is often fed by the judgement of God for all who do not meet the human rules set for what one must do in order to be saved, and these rules are all too often based on how God responded in the Old Testament to those Law breakers.  Often punishment was the result of poor choices, and the subsequent consequences of those choices. Too often the Gospel of Jesus' Grace and Love and Forgiveness for all His children is the last thing that the "truth tellers” get too. In fact, their claim is that a person must earn God's Grace and Christ's promise. Instead of focusing on the Old Testament, where it seems easy to make God out to be a vicious judge, in our corner of Christianity we first bring the Grace and Love of Christ as our center. This is for all people! It is Christ and the Spirit who bring forgiveness and establish faith in the lives of people. We come to see Jesus as our loving Savior, and yes, the only one who has the privilege to judge people, not that preacher who preaches hell and damnation if you break that rules which they have gleaned from the Old Testament.  I think that is so often why those Old Testament centered Christian communities believe themselves to be better before God than anyone else ever could be. And by the way, arguing our sense of Grace and Faith, based on Christ's Word will rarely succeed in helping those very Old Testament centered faith communities to see the light of Martin Luther's understanding of the overpowering gifts of God's Love for everyone.  That is why in October of every year we proclaim from our churches that we are saved by the Word, by Grace, and by Faith alone. No act of ours, without these things, brings us to merit forgiveness and salvation.

Reminder:  No Bible Studies next week. I am on vacation. This Sunday is Gospel Music Sunday, and the carry in meal themed Mexican. I hope I get to see you at Church this coming Sunday. with Christ's Love, Pastor Kim