Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

32 - The Son of God

There are mysteries that lie hidden for centuries and then God, in His perfect timing, chooses to reveal a deeper level of that truth. Until that revelation is given we must believe as much as He has shown us, and then humbly acknowledge there is still much we don’t know. Those who try to solve these mysteries before God reveals them always get it wrong, and end up leading others astray. The human mind is simply incapable of discerning God’s mysteries on its own. We must wait until He explains them. In fact, His spiritual truths are so deep we will spend a lifetime trying to understand just a portion of what He has shown us.

The arrival of Jesus Christ revealed God at a level far deeper than anything that had ever happened before Moses and the prophets told us about God. He spoke to us through them. But when Jesus came we actually saw God. We listened to God speak, we watched God minister, and we even touched God (1Jn 1:1). He wasn’t merely a teacher or a prophet, though He was these things. He certainly wasn’t just a good man, though He was and still is a man. Jesus is the missing piece to the puzzle. He’s the key that finally fits the lock so the door can be opened. When we understand who He is and what He has done we can at last look back on the entire Bible and find that mystery after mystery suddenly makes sense. From the things God said to Adam and Eve in the garden, to the sacrificial offerings in the tabernacle and temple, to the prophecies that an eternal king would come from the house of David…to the mysterious references in the prophets about a “Son of God.” Once you meet Jesus these passages, and many more, make sense. And they did for Saul of Tarsus too. Seeing Jesus in His glory on the road to Damascus changed everything. This great Jewish scholar now held the key that unlocked the mysteries of scripture. And it didn’t take him long to begin unlocking. Within days after being baptized he was in the synagogues of Damascus proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. 

31 - Chosen Vessels

Here we go again! We just read how an angel told Philip to walk down a particular road and then the Holy Spirit pointed out an Ethiopian official he was to lead to Christ. Now we hear the Lord speak to a disciple named Ananias and tell him to go to a certain address and lay hands on Saul of Tarsus. Both situations are “divine appointments.” In both, Jesus sends His disciple after someone He has targeted. He knows whose heart is ready to receive Him, but He also can see into the future. He can see a person’s obedience and fruitfulness, and some will be more fruitful than others. Some will choose to be apathetic and do little for Him, others will passionately serve Him the rest of their lives. There’s no way a human being can know these things. We cannot see into this realm. We have no idea who these highly fruitful people will be, but God sees the heart and knows the future, and because of this He does pursue some people more aggressively than others. He does so because He knows certain people will bring many others to Him. As illogical as it might have seemed at the time, Saul of Tarsus was one of these. This ravager of the church would become a great apostle, and write half of the books in the New Testament. God knew all that but Ananias didn’t. All he knew was that he had to put his life on the line and knock on that door.

30 - Paul Meets Jesus

Three days after wanting to kill the disciples of Jesus Christ, Paul is a completely different man. Sure, he has a lot to learn, and almost nobody trusts him yet. When he tries to meet with other believers they suspect he’s just pretending so he can gather names and come back later with the police. But he is different. Totally different. And for the next three decades he will live a life that is completely sold out to Jesus. 

As we marvel at the transformation of this man we need to ask ourselves what it was that changed him. Was what happened a special miracle because Jesus knew Paul would make a great apostle, or is this level of profound change available to anyone? Was he a unique work of God or just the most prominent example of someone whose life Jesus turned around?

Before we investigate what changed Paul, let’s notice what didn’t. No one out-debated this brilliant Pharisee or theologically convinced him that Isaiah 53 speaks of a suffering Messiah. He didn’t wake up one morning and decide he needed to be a nicer, friendlier person, and chart a self-improvement program. What changed him was he met the resurrected Jesus Christ. He didn’t gradually get better and then decide to investigate the truth about this Jesus of Nazareth. Walking toward Damascus he was worse than ever. Luke uses wording here that implies that he had, by this point in time, fallen under demonic influence and was functioning at an unnatural level of anger. He was totally committed to killing all of Jesus’ followers, and his ultimate goal was to kill Jesus Himself…again.

29 - A Divine Appointment

Not every human heart is ready to receive Jesus Christ. Different people are at different places in their spiritual journey. Some aren’t willing to hear the gospel, but others are and God knows where that person is every moment of the day. You and I can’t tell what’s going on inside another person’s heart, especially by merely looking at their outward appearance. But God knows the secret thoughts and longings within each of us. And He knows there are people all over the world, some of whom would really surprise you, who would come to Him today if only someone would tell them the truth in a way they could understand.

Philip shows us that God is aggressive. He will send believers after those with open hearts. He will arrange divine appointments. Putting you and me next to someone who needs to hear the truth is of utmost importance to Him. It’s a matter of life and death for many, and His great loving heart bursts with compassion for them. So if you and I will learn to listen and obey, like Philip, He will do whatever it takes to have our path cross with theirs. And this is where prophetic guidance comes in.

28 - Authority To Minister

How many times have you been confronted with someone who was ill or troubled and thought to yourself, “We need to find somebody to pray for this person!” The individual in front of you needed a touch of God’s power and you wondered who you knew who could pray with real authority…you know, someone who actually has power and believes in miracles. Those kind of people! And there are such people, aren’t there? But sadly there aren’t nearly enough, and they usually aren’t around when you need them.
Luke gives us a very honest report of what took place in Samaria. He says amazing miracles occurred when Philip ministered (vs 6, 7) and he tells us that Philip faithfully proclaimed the gospel and water-baptized those who believed. But he also reveals that not one of Philip’s converts received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and that it was necessary for two apostles to walk 40 miles north from Jerusalem to lay hands on these new believers so they could receive the Holy Spirit. This raises serious questions. Why didn’t Philip do that? Were the apostles the only ones with such authority? And then when we read what happened when the apostles laid their hands on them, the questions become even more troubling. Did these baptized believers not have the Holy Spirit until Peter and John arrived? After all it says, “He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized…” (v16).
These aren’t silly questions. We really need them answered if you and I are to see that those we bring to Christ have every blessing God wants for them. So let’s do some careful study, because Luke is very precise in his language, and when we look closely, solid answers are there. And those answers will embolden all of us to minister with authority.

27 - Shepherds and Wolves

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is kind and compassionate. When He began His ministry He introduced Himself this way: 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18, 19; Isa 61:1, 2).

This is why the Father sent Him to earth, and this is His heart toward us: to save, to release, to heal, and to set free. He’s a good shepherd. And when He comes to live inside us He changes our heart to make it like His, and in doing so turns us into shepherds too. All of us. Every single one. How could it be any other way? If we have the Good Shepherd living inside, how could we not love His sheep? God is love, and if He lives inside me, how could I not live a love-filled life? (1Jn 4:15, 16)

Which is why Peter instantly knows Simon isn’t saved. Simon said he believed and had been water baptized. He’d hung around with Philip and watched him minister to the sick and oppressed. And then when Peter and John arrived he had been amazed at what he saw when people received the Holy Spirit. Now he wanted that same power, but he wanted it for wrong reasons. In spite of his confession of Christ his heart hadn’t changed. He wasn’t a shepherd, he was a wolf.

26 - Phillip in Samaria

People need a God who actually does something. We live in a world filled with varieties of invented gods and philosophies. They only exist because of someone’s imagination. They make great claims but provide no proof they exist. We’re told to trust them, and after we die it will all become real. How many different theories about life and death have you heard? Undoubtedly, the answer is, so many (and they all contradict one another) that you may have been left wondering if reliable truth about the spiritual world exists anywhere, or is all religion just guesswork? And before someone answers, “Well, at least we know Christianity is true!” May I ask how we know that? What caused you to entrust your eternity to Jesus Christ? Yes, Christianity is a beautiful religion, and by comparison (my judgment) most of the religions of the world look like something a human invented, but what could you turn to and say, “See, this isn’t something we invented in our minds. It’s true, here’s proof!” Now, I know in the final analysis we all have to walk by faith. Nothing can be absolutely proven to the philosophical skeptic. But still there are many who walk with God in deep assurance. So, how far is God willing to go to prove Himself to human beings? Do we dare ask for proof or will such presumption make Him angry (if He’s there)? Philip, preaching in Samaria, gives us an answer. 

25 - Scattered

What had been an amazingly joyful season for the church in Jerusalem is suddenly thrown into turmoil. Stephen is publicly stoned and the temple authorities feel they now have enough popular support to send soldiers into the city to hunt down believers from house to house, to put them in prison and then to beat and execute them (Ac 22:4, 5, 19, 20; 26:9-11). The effect of this violence was to scatter believers. They fled the city for their lives. Luke says, “And there was in that day a great hunt upon the church in Jerusalem, and all were sown out into the rural country sides of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Ac 8:1). He pictures believers being sown like a farmer sows seeds. They were scattered far and wide through the surrounding country sides, being careful to avoid those cities where they might be recognized and arrested. At this point it might seem God’s work was severely hindered, but then Luke adds this statement, “Therefore the ones being sown passed through these regions preaching the word (about Jesus)” (Ac 8:4). With that one statement Luke shows us that this persecution didn’t stop the church, it expanded it. It turned a lot of people into missionaries. It forced them to go to Judea, Samaria and even the remotest parts of the earth. The very places Jesus had told His disciples to go after they were “clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49). 

24 - Steven Full of Grace

Luke wrote the history of the early church but he wasn’t personally present at these events until chapter 16 (Ac 16:10). To gather all this information he had to interview eyewitnesses, ask them pointed questions to draw out their memories, and then carefully write down what they told him. Someone had to tell him about the martyrdom of Stephen; someone who was there and heard and saw what happened; someone who was at the debate and then later was present when the Sanhedrin gathered to try him; someone who saw the look on Stephen’s face and described it as “the face of an angel;” someone who listened to his defense and remembered it point by point; someone who saw, and maybe even felt, the anger that surged through the room when Stephen told them they had murdered the Messiah; someone who watched everyone cover their ears and rush forward dragging him out of the city to stone him; someone who stood close enough to hear him speak as he was dying; someone who heard him cry out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”

I suspect I know who it was. Have you guessed? I think Luke didn’t have to travel far to get this information. That man was only a few feet away from him, in the next room, awaiting his own trial. And when he allowed himself to remember Stephen, the first thing he said, probably through his tears, was to call him a man “full of grace,” because that was Stephen’s gift to him.

23 - Handling Problems Well

How many of us are facing a problem that’s still there because we didn’t address it? It’s not a new problem, it’s an old problem that didn’t go away. Most of us tend to avoid confronting issues hoping matters will resolve themselves with the passing of time, but if we’re honest with ourselves we’d have to admit that seldom happens. Things that are broken don’t fix themselves, projects don’t move forward without someone investing time and effort, and suspicion and alienation certainly aren’t healed without someone taking deliberate steps to reconcile. 

What we see in our lesson today is a problem being handled well. The rapid growth of the church had brought in people from different backgrounds, and it wasn’t long before old cultural divisions sprang up. Charges had been leveled at the apostles that they had shown favoritism toward one group over another, and the situation had the potential to divide the church and ruin it’s witness. But it didn’t. Instead, it became an opportunity for another miracle that stunned the community and caused even more people to want to become followers of Jesus. Instead of hurting the church’s growth, it accelerated it. So how the apostles handled that crisis is a marvelous example of how to handle problems in our own lives. And if we put these lessons into practice in 2013, 2014 should be a lot more stress-free.