Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

As we read this passage we’re watching a new era begin. The relationship between God’s Spirit and His people has changed forever. Never before had the Holy Spirit been able to live inside the sin-contaminated bodies of believers. Never before was such intimacy with God possible to all of God’s people, not just a special few. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven radically changed things. His death actually cleansed our bodies and made them a suitable dwelling place for God. Now He is able to live inside us, and as you might expect when He arrives it produces some remarkable changes.

So this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of the “promise of the Father” (Ac 1:4). Wow! What an amazing event! But, frankly, it’s so amazing that if I don’t understand what’s happening to these people I can easily end up in the same condition as the watching multitude: amazed and bewildered, which is to say, confused and frightened. Luke’s description of that Pentecost morning raises a lot of questions—questions I need answered if I’m to step forward and seek this baptism of the Holy Spirit for myself. So here’s what we’ll do today. First, we’ll examine the passage carefully to see what really took place. Then we’ll identify which promise was being fulfilled. Then we’ll ask the practical questions of what does God do to a person when they receive this gift. Then, let’s be very personal and ask what can I expect will happen to me if I receive it. And finally, let’s ask that nagging question that tends to linger in the back of our minds, can I really expect that God would give that same gift to me?

Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose Judas? It was a choice He made after intense prayer. Luke tells us, “He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also named apostles (Lk 6:12-16). Eleven of these worked out very well, but one ended badly. Does that mean a mistake was made? Did Jesus miss hearing God correctly on one name? Or, did God guide Him to select Judas so there would be someone among the disciples evil enough to betray Him?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.