Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

5 - Waiting For Pentecost

When God promises us something He’s revealing His heart. He’s showing us what He wants to do in our lives, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will actually take place. When God gives us something it’s ours, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we will actually receive it. There are forces within and without that can prevent us from receiving what God has given us.

Not understanding this fact causes a lot of confusion. There are many people who have received prophetic promises which apparently didn’t come true. Of course, it’s possible some of these were produced by wishful thinking rather than divine inspiration, so in some cases the word itself wasn’t authentic. But there are also clear Biblical promises concerning God’s will for all of us that never seem to take place. And there’s not one simple answer as to why. But one reason many of us go so long without receiving, is that we haven’t learned to wait. The problem is we think waiting is, well…just waiting. Which is to say, going on with life while keeping one eye open to see if God actually comes through on what He said. After all, He knows where we live so when He decides to do it, He will, right?

But surprisingly that’s not true. There’s much more to waiting on God than that. Promises and blessings have to be pursued, fought for, held on to. Often our own hearts have to be changed before we can receive. Some might hear this as trying to force God to do something He doesn’t want to do, as disrespectful, as though such aggression is trying to push God to do something He doesn’t want to do. But that’s where the confusion lies. This kind of waiting isn’t presumption, it’s faith. It doesn’t offend Him, it pleases Him. He loves it when His children hear Him promise something, and won’t be denied. He loves it when we lay hold of Him and won’t let go. He loves it when we set aside the distractions of the world, and wait till He shows up. Just like the disciples waited for Pentecost.

What does Luke say?

4 - Going to Heaven

There is a place called heaven. It’s a real place, not some “fairy-land” tucked away in another “dimension.” Way too much philosophical speculation has gone on here, until some descriptions of heaven begin to sound more like the land of Oz than the beautiful place the Bible describes. Yes, of course, it’s a spiritual place, but we need to keep in mind that the spiritual realm is real, not imaginary. Every physical thing in our universe was created by the spiritual realm, not vice versa. If you will, the spiritual realm is more real than the physical, not less. And heaven is a real place, and Jesus is there now in a glorious, imperishable body which is so solid you can still touch His scars, and so human you can eat a meal with Him.

Being sure of this makes all the difference in the world. We can endure almost anything if we’re certain what’s waiting for us on the other side. It puts both the pleasures and sufferings of this life into perspective. It makes the purpose of life clear as crystal. It’s all about going there and taking others with us.

3 - Preparing to Leave

Between his gospel and the Book of Acts, Luke has given us enough information to recreate in our minds a rough sketch of the Lord’s final day with His disciples. When we go back to the carefully chosen words Luke uses, a beautiful picture emerges of our risen Lord preparing to leave. We know what He talked about during the 40 days following His resurrection, and we know what He said, and probably where He said it, on this final day before he ascended. Who among us wouldn’t give almost anything to have been there with those disciples listening to Him and then watching Him rise into heaven? Today we’ll find, as we will so often during our study of Acts, gratitude welling up within us toward this Greek physician (Col 4:14) who did the research necessary to let us slip into the back of those gatherings to listen and watch.

2 - Theophilus

How far did God have to go to reach you? Some of us came to Him quickly and easily as children, others not until late in life. But taking that first step toward God was not the end of the matter. However and whenever we came to Him, as life progressed, we found that holding on to Him is a challenge. Events happened that caused us to question God’s goodness or power. Doubts arose about the historical truth of what we had embraced. People argued with us or ridiculed us for our childlike trust until we felt foolish for believing things we couldn’t “prove.” And if that weren’t enough, at some point we found our obedience to Christ got us in trouble. To remain loyal to Him cost us something that mattered to us. We had to let go of something or someone in order to hold on to Him. And the more we became aware of the world’s genuine hostility toward our faith, the more we understood that real persecution might be a price we’d have to pay. So, our walk with Christ not only started with a choice to believe, it has required many choices to believe along the way.

These first few verses of Acts remind us that God doesn’t abandon us to struggle alone with these issues. His Holy Spirit is always with us to refresh our faith, but He also sends us people to come after us when we wander and stand beside us when we’re weak. Amazingly, Luke wrote the Book of Acts to strengthen the faith of one man.

1 - Preparing For Acts

Welcome to the Book of Acts! Today we begin an adventure. We will regularly be traveling back in time, nearly 2000 years, to watch our forefathers and mothers live out their faith. Many of them actually knew Jesus. They had watched Him minister and had listened to Him teach. And what we read in this book is their obedience to what they heard Him tell them to do. He had been a good teacher, and they loved Him. They had watched Him ascend into heaven. They believed in Him. So when He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit, they waited. When He told them they would do the same kinds of ministry as He had done, they did. They stood in the same place in the Temple where He had stood, and taught and healed the crowds just as He had. They gathered in homes to eat together, discuss the Word and pray just as they had done with Him traveling through Galilee and Judea. He assured them that after He ascended He would still be with them, so they continued to expect Him to lead them as their Lord. When He said He would send them to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even the remote parts of the earth, they went.

As we read Luke’s historical account of the first 30 years of the Church, the example of these early believers continues to challenge us. Indeed, the Book of Acts has often been used in the past to inspire revival. Sooner or later someone reads the book and asks, “Why don’t we do those things anymore?” And if they refuse to listen to the excuses someone always supplies, they’ve taken the first step toward a fresh move of God.

God’s strategy to win the world

God’s strategy to win the world can be put into two words: multiply Jesus. Like seed in the hand of the sower, He said He would take Spirit-filled men and women and scatter them everywhere. Jesus would be their Head, and they would be His Body. So Jesus’ ministry would not end at His ascension but shift into high gear. No longer would Jesus be limited to being in one place at a time. Now His people could carry Him everywhere.

52 - Removing the Veil

A profound inner change takes place when a person is born-again. Not only are our sins forgiven, but our spiritual capacities are radically increased. After being born-again a person is not the same person as they were before (2Co 5:17). This does not mean that all our attitudes and behaviors are instantly “Christ-like.” But our potential to become Christ-like has changed dramatically. Probably the best word to describe our new condition is “freedom.” A born-again person is finally free—free to see and hear a whole new world they hardly knew existed before. And most importantly, free to draw close to God because God is the source from which flows all the resources we need.

 

In today’s lesson we’ll start by watching the transformation Moses underwent as he drew close to God. We’ll also notice the strange response he met with when people saw that transformation. Then we’ll turn to a passage in Paul’s letter in which he explains the spiritual meaning of this event and we’ll learn why we are now free to draw near to God until we too shine with His glory.

 

Read: Exodus 33:17–23; 34:5–8, 28–35; 2 Corinthians 3:4–18

51 - The Book of Life

As Moses interceded for his rebellious nation he made a remarkable statement. He told the Lord that if He would not forgive Israel for its sin of worshipping the golden calf, he wanted his own name removed from God’s book. His words surprise us and make us want to ask, “What book?”, because up until now the Bible has not mentioned such a book. But Moses had a level of relationship with God which involved deeper levels of communication than anyone else in the Old Testament. So there were things in the spiritual world he knew and saw for the first time. In this case he confidently mentioned a book in which God recorded the names of those who belonged to Him. As we’ll discover in our study today there were other prophets who came after him in the Old and New Testaments who acknowledged the existence of this book. As we survey their words an amazing picture emerges. There is indeed a book called the “Book of Life” and whether or not our names are written there makes all the difference in the world. First we’ll examine more closely the nature of this book and then we’ll review the necessary steps to ensure that our names are also recorded there.

50 - Waiting For Jesus

Humans can live without food much longer than without water, but to survive 40 days without water is inconceivable apart from a miracle. When Moses failed to return from Mt. Sinai the nation naturally assumed he had died, either from thirst or possibly he’d been burned to death by the fire which still could be seen on the mountain’s peak (24:17,18). Considering themselves leaderless they turned to Aaron who had been left in charge and demanded he make an idol. They were unnerved by this invisible God. They wanted something they could see. It’s hard to explain why they would so flagrantly overturn a covenant they had made only weeks earlier. And for Aaron to enable their rebellion by carving the image of an Egyptian god is a level of cowardice on his part that is simply shocking. Without a doubt he feared for his life as he faced the mob. To have refused may have meant he would have been beaten or executed, but his cooperation made it sadly evident he had no intention of dying for his faith.

 

In today’s lesson we’ll discover the similarities between Israel waiting for Moses to return and believers today waiting for Jesus to return. Surprisingly we can face some of the same temptations they did. So we’ll listen to biblical advice that will help us wait without losing hope.

49 - The Anointed Church

Oil had been used symbolically since at least the times of the patriarchs. In Genesis 28:18, 22 (also: Ge 31:13; 35:14) Jacob poured oil on a stone which had been his pillow during a vision of God. In this way he acknowledged that the place was filled with God’s presence. Elsewhere in the Bible the “anointing” with oil is used as a symbol of receiving the Holy Spirit (1Sa 16:13; Ac 10:38; 2Co 1:21, 22; 1Jn 2:20, 27). Priests, prophets and kings were “anointed” with oil (Ex 40:15; 1Sa 16:13; 1Ki 19:15, 16) to signify that God had set them in a special place or function, equipped them for His service, and empowered them by placing His Spirit on them (Douglas, J.D, ed., The New Bible Dictionary, Erdmans, 1962, on “anointing,” p 39). The word “anointed” means to apply an “ointment” or oil-based solution to a person or object. When used this way the oil represents the presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon and remaining on the person or object. In order to provide a special anointing oil for the priests and tabernacle the Lord instructed that aromatic oils from certain spices be mixed into a gallon of olive oil. This would produce a lovely smelling oil that left a lingering fragrance. His recipe called for four spices: myrrh is a scented resin from a desert shrub; cinnamon is a brown spice we are familiar with today; and cane and cassia are scented spices from India. If the recipe meant 50 pounds of dry powdered spices were added to a gallon of olive oil the result would have been a thick paste. So when the reference is made in verse 25 to a “perfume mixture” we are being told that a perfumer boiled the sweet-smelling essences out of this amount of spices and mixed the perfume into the olive oil. The tent, all its articles of furniture and utensils, along with Aaron and his sons were to be anointed with this special perfumed oil. This action invited the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit and set apart those people and objects as “holy” (Ex 40:9-15, Lev 8:10-12).

48 - Morning and Evening

Jesus Christ has called us to be priests of God. So, as we read the instructions for the priests of Israel we find many basic principles which apply to us today. In fact, we discover that each article of the priests garments, each form of their worshipful service and each object in the tabernacle holds a remarkably clear prophetic meaning. Over the past weeks we’ve looked at the ark of the covenant in the Holy of holies, and the altar and laver in the courtyard, but today we’ll focus on a small object in the large court of the tent (“the holy place”) which was only 18 inches square by three feet high. It was called the “altar of incense” and in spite of its small size it was actually the high point of all priestly service, for it was the place where they would daily fellowship with God in prayer. The ark of the covenant represented the heart of God Himself and was the place where His presence dwelt in power. But everything else in the tabernacle complex was meant as a means to prepare people to come to this little altar. In the same room with it were two other symbols meant to remind the nation of the promises of God. On the north side was a table with 12 large loaves of bread, one for each tribe. By this table God was promising He would always provide the resources needed by His children. He would give them their “daily bread.” On the south side was a seven-branched lampstand. These lamps burned constantly as a promise that God would always light the path of His people, seven days a week, giving them revelation of His will and Word.

 

We’ll begin today by looking at the prophetic meaning of the altar of incense and then reflect on how God wants us to pray as New Testament believers.