8 July 2011

Psalm 16, 17; 1 Samuel 17:17-30; Acts 10:34-48; Mark 1:1-13

So Jesse sends the anointed one, God’s chosen king, to take some food to his sons, the real men, at battle and to act as a messenger boy from them. All the men of Israel are afraid except for David who is deeply offended by the words of this “uncircumcised Philistine.” Saul has promised great things for the man who is brave enough to stand against Goliath and it seems no one is willing to go forth. David’s brother, Eliab, speaks impertinently to a king but typically as a big brother to his little brother. “I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle." What battle, they, including Eliab, are afraid to engage in this battle. There is no battle to see. As far as knowing David’s heart, Eliab clearly knows nothing at all, David is, after all, a man after God’s own heart. Are the sheep in the wilderness more important than the honor of God and His people?

John’s ministry was certainly a strange looking ministry. John remained outside Jerusalem and required people to come out to him and yet his ministry was having a powerful impact. His ministry wasn’t in Jerusalem, it was preparing the way for the king, the Lord, the Messiah, to come and He would lead the way into Jerusalem. The people were going out to John in response to his message of baptism for the repentance to sin, a call to holiness. John baptizes with a promise. It is odd that in Acts 19 we meet a group of people who are baptized with the baptism of John who have never heard of the Holy Spirit since John promises that the one of whom he speaks will baptize with the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism Mark says that the heavens were “torn open” prior to the descent of the dove and the words from heaven. Is this Noah’s dove from Genesis 8 that did not return to him?

Peter speaks as though Cornelius and the others know the story of Jesus, at one point referring to what they know about Jesus’ ministry. He preaches the same basic Gospel that he preached on the day of Pentecost but without the Jewish history attached to it. He doesn’t quote Scripture, simply tells the story and then something happens when he get to, “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." What happens is the Gentile Pentecost. God gives the Holy Spirit to these Gentiles at the preaching of the Gospel in the same way He had given it to the Jews, shown by the speaking in tongues, just as at Pentecost. Peter’s reaction is to go with it, I would love to have seen his face as he tried to come to grips with the move of God among these Gentiles, even though they were God-fearers. The only thing he can think to do is baptize them since they already have all else they can get. It had to be difficult for everyone to understand that circumcision was apparently no longer a requirement, the visible sign was now going to be something else. The memorial of the covenant was now going to be the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. The circumcision of the heart was more important than circumcision of the flesh.

Praise to the Lord, who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Tune