2 Samuel 23:24-24:25, Acts 3:1-26, Psalms 123:1-4, Proverbs 16:21-23
Today is the 5th day of June. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. And it is a pleasure to step into this next day that we’ll spend together in the Scriptures and have this time in community. And we’ve been making some transitions. We’ve transitioned into a new month recently. We completed the Gospels- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recently and have just gotten into the book of Acts. And today we will complete the book of 2 Samuel which will bring us to another era. We’ll move into 1 Kings tomorrow. So that’s kind of the lay of the land, but let’s finish strong. Let’s finish 2 Samuel well. We’re reading from the Amplified Bible this week. 2 Samuel 23:24-24:25.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we are in the third chapter of Acts. A lot of stuff has happened, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Many people are flocking to Jesus. Peter and John are going into the temple to pray in the afternoon and they have this encounter with this person who couldn’t walk. It’s kind of a famous- at least famous for me. I’ve known this story my whole life. I was taught this story in Sunday school. So, there’s this person who can’t walk. Peter and John are looking at him intently. And he’s kind of shaking his cup wanting people to give him coins. We’re all kind of familiar with the idea. They’re looking at him intently and he sees them looking at him so he’s shaking his cup and he’s expecting them to give him some money. And they don’t. In fact, Peter speaks, Silver and gold have I none. I don’t have any money. But what I do have I’m willing to give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk. And the man does. Okay, so this is the first chronicled miraculous healing event that happens in the Bible after Jesus returns to the Father and after the coming of the Holy Spirit. And it draws a crowd obviously. They’re in the temple complex, this whole thing goes down. People had seen this guy begging many times, so he was not unknown and here he is walking around. And, so, this draws a crowd, which allows Peter to speak again about Jesus. The way that he leads into his talk is important for us because he asks a question that we should be asking as we move through the rest of the New Testament. Okay, so Peter leads in by saying, why (and he’s speaking to the crowd) why are you amazed at this? What’s so surprising about this? Why are you flocking together like this? What is the big deal? Why are you so surprised? And he uses that as a lead in about Jesus. This is what Jesus was doing and you rejected and crucified him. But his spirit of still with us and this is still happening. God is doing something in this world through Jesus. Now, Jesus basically foretold all of this when he said essentially all of the things that you’ve seen me do, you can do all of this. You can do greater than this because I’m going to the Father. So, Peter and John are in the temple complex simply moving forward. This is what Jesus told them would happen and so Peter speaks up, he’s like, why are you so surprised? I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with stuff like this because I can read the story and then I can listen to Peter say, why are you amazed by this, what’s so surprising. And I can say, well because it’s surprising. I wasn’t expecting this kind of outpouring of God’s power. That’s why I’m amazed. That’s why I’m surprised. But the point that Peter seems to be making is this shouldn’t surprise you. It’s a rhetorical question because Jesus had said this was all gonna happen. So, on one hand, we can look at Jesus and say, well, when Jesus did this kind of stuff, of course it was Jesus, so he could do this kind of stuff. So, he has a pass, even though he’s fully human, he has a pass. He’s Jesus, the son of God. It changes though, when Peter and John are involved, when other people are involved, because Jesus isn’t doing it physically. So how does that work. And the normal way to look at it is the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what happened. And then that’s what Peter said. It wasn’t their power, it was the power of the name of Jesus. Okay, so push pause on that for a second and let’s just understand that as we go into the book of Acts, as we are now in that time period, we are post Jesus earthly ministry and in the age where the church formed and developed. We are still in that time. We’re reading the story of the very beginning of it. But it has continued on until now. So, we do have to ask ourselves why it is that we would be surprised that there is power in the name of Jesus through the power of his Holy Spirit at work on this earth through us? I mean, the surprise kind of speaks into our doubt, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it speak directly to our doubt because the surprise that there is power in the name of Jesus whether in the book of Acts or in our own lives essentially means that we were shocked because we did not expect that to happen when Jesus said basically to expect it to happen. And Peter basically just re-iterated that when he’s talking to this man who couldn’t walk and then could. What if we got to the place where we weren’t surprised when God showed up in one way or another? Why are we always praying and then surprised? What if it weren’t a surprise? What if it were normal because it was ordinary and normal for Jesus? In fact, Jesus spent a lot of time downplaying this kind of stuff. Telling people, keep this on the down low. Don’t go back into the village. Go home a different way. Your faith has made you whole. But he’s constantly keeping people from spreading the word about these kinds of things because they seem to be normal things for Jesus. And then we see that continuing into the life of the very early church. So, what would life be like if we were following the lead of the Holy Spirit, which we ask for in prayer every day? What if we were following the lead of the Holy Spirit and we weren’t surprised by the presence of the Lord? It was normal. This was our normal way of going through life in God’s presence where, according to the gospel of Luke, all things are possible. That would take a bit of work. Work that would begin with some self-reflection, understanding our influences, the things that are leading us to doubt, the culture that is pressing in on us and just kind of guiding us on the wave forward. We might have to change quite a few things to become aware of God’s presence continually to the point that nothing would surprise us. It would be normal. And I’m not talking about just running around doing miraculous healings and signs and wonders and stuff like that. We love that kind of stuff. We sort for that kind of stuff because it’s supernatural. But what if it’s not supernatural? What if, when we look at Jesus knowing that he is intertwined with the Father and fully human, that operating in this life on planet earth without sin, perfectly, even though the world is fallen. What if the stuff that he does is what is supposed to be normal? Because he seems to tell us that it is. So what if this aspiration that we have to become Christlike, that we make just sort of the devotional aim of our lives, like, Yeah, I should try to behave more like Jesus, what if that weren’t what Christlike actually is? What if Christlike is actually like Christ? Because as we will see when we get into the writings of the Apostle Paul, that’s exactly what he’s suggesting. Jesus is the first born into a re-integrated family of God. What happened at the fall, separation between God and man, that divide was bridged through Jesus so that mankind and God are reunited. That is like orthodox Christianity 101. How is it that we have made this a devotional aspiration as opposed to a frank and stark reality that the old has passed away and we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives within us? If those things are true, then we shouldn’t be surprised that the presence of God and anything that happens because of the presence of God. So, put that in your pipe and smoke it today because it’s very disruptive because it shows us that we’re settling, right? That the Almighty power and presence of God is all around us and within us, his Spirit. In fact, the Bible would tell us the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. So yeah, in that light , why would anything like this surprise us? Why would we be surprised when we read these stories in the Scriptures and why would be we be surprised at the presence of God in our lives?
Prayer:
Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and that shakes things up. It makes us have to reconsider a lot of things that we’ve just gone along with and it would force us to change a significant number of things in our lives to move forward in Your presence continually. And, so, this is a wakeup call. It’s disruptive. It shakes us. It invites us to consider what it is that we think is true, what the Scriptures are telling us. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth. Lead us deeper into Jesus. Lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. And whatever comes as a result of that will be right and good and true and light and good news that the kingdom (is) on earth as it is in heaven. Come, Holy Spirit, and let this come to us, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for next month, which is tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hi family this is His Little Sharee in Canada and I have really appreciated those who have called in with thirty-day challenges and other series of prayers and it’s inspired me to ask, what can I do? What do I have to contribute? And, so, I’ve decided to call in on the first of each month to share something from what I call the banqueting table of prayer because there’s so many different ways to pray. So, each month I want to share with you a creative prayer idea. So, here’s a creative way to pray for those who enjoy gardening and plants. You can choose a small plant or grow one from a seed and every time you water that plant say a simple prayer for someone, someone that you know, that God would pour out His Spirit on them and help them to grow. And this is especially appropriate to pray for someone who may be a new Christian. Or how about using an aloe Vera plant for someone who needs healing. Then, after a period of time as you’ve prayed and the plant has grown you can give that plant as a gift to the person you were praying for and you can tell them that this is their prayer plant or you can just bless them with a lovely gift. And I’m sure that you can think of many different versions of this kind of prayer. So, that’s June’s sampling from the banqueting table of prayer. Prayer plants. And I’ll call in with another idea next month. God bless you family. Bye for now.
Hello family. My name is Stephanie and I am a first-time caller. And I’m just, we’re going through a lot. So, I just wanted to reach out to my family. First, I just want to tell everybody all around the world what an amazing, amazing thing this is. When I listen, I try to listen daily, that we’re connected from all around the world. It is truly mind blowing, followers of Christ, Christ our King. Just so thankful. Anyway, so, my family, we need miracles right now. I’m just, my voice is even shaking, I’m just…I’m just shaken up by so many things, it’s just been, it’s been an incredible two years for this family. I have been a stay at home mom, homeschool mom of our five amazing children who know the Lord and my husband is, I want to give too many details, but he’s been an advertising photographer. And we lost our best client, which was our annual salary for our entire family and we haven’t made that up. So, we lost our home last March. We had to move into a rental house and we have been given 30 days out of this rental house to find a home. We’re a huge family. We’re 8 people. And we’re…I’m just…I’m asking prayer that we just, it’s just too much for me. My husband’s work still hasn’t come back to normal. So, we just need God to show up. And I’m just so thankful that I can ask my family to come alongside us and pray for us. We need miracles right now. We might, if we are supposed to be relocating because we remove is very expensive. But what right now where just pressed and I’m just asking for prayer for all of this. And everything has been affected, the kids…
Hello. My name is Dennis from Palos Verdes. I’m just calling because I’m at a place where I need prayer for my marriage, my wife, myself. We’ve suffered the loss of our son a couple years ago and things have been hard to say the least. We’re both very strong in our faith. We both love each other very much. We both are struggling though, to get to that new normal, whatever that is to find out whatever God has for us. We have good times. We love each other. We want to be together. We want to find whatever God is doing in our lives, but I’m just asking for prayer for us to give us strength and renew us in His word and just help us along. I don’t know. I’m just looking to lift her up, lift myself up, and continue to go down this path together. I ask for that, please. In Jesus’ name I pray for this. Amen.
Hi family. This is Dolly from Massachusetts and I wanted to ask you to please pray for my friend Elizabeth in Orlando. She’s been looking for a permanent job and a place to live for a while. And where she’s living now, it’s not working out very well and she needs to leave by today. And she has nowhere to go. She doesn’t want to go to a shelter. And she hasn’t been able to find a room to rent through her church or anywhere around where she lives. And she was hoping to find an apartment and it looked like it was going to work out but things didn’t quite work out in the end. Please lift her up and pray for her. God has a plan for her. And please help her see the doors that need opening for her and the path that He has her on. And please pray that He will appear in the 11th hour and she’ll have a place to go. And family, please pray with me for everyone who listens to the Daily Audio Bible and everyone who’s touched the Daily Audio Bible, for the people who do not call in with a prayer request. Lord, You know the financial struggles that we’re having. You know the problems that we’re having in marriages and our relationships. You know those of us who are waiting for our children to come home. You know those of us who are waiting for our children to come to You. And Father God You know those of us who are waiting for jobs and those of us who have health problems, those of us who are sitting by our loved ones waiting for them to die. And our hearts are breaking. Lord, please comfort us in these times when we seek You. Please open doors for us Father God. Heal our hearts and our minds and our bodies. In Jesus’ name. Amen.