As you will hear in this PODCAST, there is embedded within the pages of the Old Testament one standout picture (one among so many) that we must consider together.
50 chapters were devoted to the painting of this one picture. (By way of contrast, do you remember how many chapters are devoted to painting the picture of the creation of the world? Two!)
When it came to painting the picture of Christ dying for our sins once for all time, God—forgive the cliché—spared no expense in painting this one.
This podcast—my stuttering, stumbling, verbal depiction of this painting—is singularly dedicated to the enrichment of your soul.
Enjoy!
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I want you to imagine for a moment this scenario. (As you will hear in this PODCAST, a potentially familiar biblical story to you.)
That being said, see if you can guess the name of its principle player.
His people were ravaged by a barbarically blood-thirsty Empire, the armies of which decimated his land, desecrated his holy places, and butchered his people.
His hatred for these pagan barbarians flamed in his guts with the white-hot fury of volcanic rage. A smoldering-just-beneath-the-surface-anger that could have understandably erupted into a deadly confrontation at the slightest provocation.
But God is a God of mercy, isn’t he?
So He asked this man to set aside his prejudices, to extinguish the fiery rage that blazed within him. And in the face of the mountain of abuses he and his people suffered at the hands of these hedonistic heathens, these merciless marauders, to travel into the very power-center of this occupying power in order to share with the people there the Good News of God’s redemptive love.
The notion that he would engage these interlopers on any level was utterly repugnant to him. Not to mention his absolute inability even to entertain the slightest possibility that some such as these might spend an eternity with him in Heaven.
He didn’t want God to save them; He wanted God to obliterate them.
So down to the seaport city of Joppa he went (that’s your clue to this mystery man’s identity) where he confronted a personal crisis of faith unlike he had ever experienced before.
Does he walk away in rebellion against God? Does he get into a boat and sail away, in direct defiance of God’s revealed will?
Or does he submit himself to the task to which God called him, knowing full-well that in doing so he may-well place himself squarely in the crosshairs of his sworn enemy?
To whom am I referring? Who was this singularly-selected servant of God, forced to face such a potentially life-threatening, history-altering choice?
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His legacy is forever set in stone, indelibly etched in granite as Simon the Sorcerer.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, Simon the Sorcerer is the very first person we meet outside of the cozy confines of the Holy City, Jerusalem. #ThisIsHuge!
You talk about a guy who had the deck stacked against him, meet this Simon the Samaritan Sorcerer.
That gasp you just heard was the rush of disbelieving air exploding out of the collapsing lungs of Luke’s original readers.
Trust me: We should gasp too!
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As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, to our Western sensibilities, Acts 2:23 plunges us into a theological quagmire of staggering proportions.
But trust me. When Peter introduced this indictment of that Day of Pentecost crowd, he didn’t even flinch.
And therein lies the story.
Consider this: It’s verses like Acts 2:23 that have given rise to literally centuries of endless (and may I humbly suggest, pointless) theological debate. All the while, Peter’s words in this landmark verse are so wonderfully elegant in their economy—a rather modest 15 words in the Greek; though something of a more elaborate 31 words in our English (NIV) translations.
So here it comes. Acts 2:23. With its attendant theological quagmire. Hear it as it does…
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You know what? Sometimes things really are as simple as they seem.
This ironic little truism was never more true than Jesus’ words here at the tail end of the SOTM.
Boy, if you ever wanted snappy little snapshot of God’s heart AND men’s hearts, it’s all right here in these five words,
Enter by the narrow gate.
This is our 73rd installment of Jesus in HD.
When we began this series back on November 9, 2012, we stated our primary foundational premise, one (I am pleased to say) from which we have yet to depart. That foundational premise being this: We were going to lay aside all preconceived ideas of who Jesus is, and take a fresh new look at the four Gospels, which is to say, a fresh new look at the life/ministry of Jesus from birth – death – resurrection – ascension. And we will discover anew exactly who Jesus really is.
This approach has served us well, yielding for us some fresh and refreshing new insights / a whole new portrait of just who Jesus was and is.
This never more true as when we come to a passage like the one we are considering tonight.
Dewey Bertolini 