A Lasting Christmas Wish- Acts 26:29

Have you sent out or given any Christmas wishes lately? Or have you asked any children what they are wishing for for Christmas?

This time of year in our culture is consumed with trying to figure out the correct gift to give someone. We want to pick out the perfect gift and we want to enjoy the look on someone's face when they open a present from us that they really are excited about and don't have to fake it!

We also change our greetings during the holidays. Instead of "See ya later," or, "Hey, How's it going?" now we say, "Merry Christmas!" If you've gone caroling, you've probably even sung, "We wish you a merry Christmas."

In all of the merry wishing and gift giving and holiday parties, have you wished for the one thing for the people you love that actually matters?

In Acts 26, Paul is on trial...unfairly. He had a right to be upset about it. People were accusing him falsely and maliciously. His life was on the balance. But as you read Paul's defense before Agrippa, Paul quickly pivots from defending his actions to placing Agrippa on trial in a way. Paul's very defense is focused solely on winning the souls of those who are listening! And after he talks about the prophets pointing to Jesus as the Messiah, he challenges Agrippa to see the truth for himself. I'm sure you've heard Agrippa's famous response before.

“Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”                                  -  Acts 26:28

And that is the statement that provokes Paul's wish that whether it happens quickly or it takes a lifetime, he wishes that Agrippa and everyone else within earshot would gain everything that Paul had gained through Christ...except of course the chains!

I point to that verse, because as we get close to the end of the book of Acts, I hope one of the reasons the early Christian church spread as rapidly and as powerfully as it did has become extremely clear. I think Paul's comment sums up his entire life after conversion. It was all about the saving love of Christ! He saw no one whom he didn't wish for their soul to be saved! Why? Because HE HIMSELF HAD BEEN SAVED!

I'm not sure who said it, but I have a quote hanging on my door that says,

To be a disciple of Christ is to make disciples of Christ. It is impossible to know Christ without having an urgent desire to make Him known.

So here's my challenge as we close out this year. The next time you say "Merry Christmas" to someone...or the next time you ask a child what they are wishing to get from Santa. Let that be a trigger that reminds you to think about the one gift that really matters. It's not peace during the holiday season. It's not toys or sweaters or egg nog or fruit cake. It's the gift of salvation.

And when you think about that during your conversation. Say a quick prayer for that person right there on the spot. And then let that prayer guide your comments and your conversation. Is there anything you might say or do that would confront them with the love and truth of the Good News? Is there something you might do for the parents of the child that would allow them to grow up in a home that is filled with grace and love instead of just filled with presents under the tree?

It is impossible to know Christ without without having an urgent desire to make Him known.

Do you have that desire? If not, then my wish is also for you to know Him in a new way.

The Choice to Forgive- Acts 7:59-60

Compare that prayer for forgiveness to some of the Psalms...take Psalm 109 for instance where David is praying about some of his enemies:

⁶ Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
    let an accuser stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
    and may his prayers condemn him.
⁸ May his days be few;
    may another take his place of leadership.
⁹ May his children be fatherless
    and his wife a widow.
¹⁰ May his children be wandering beggars;
    may they be driven from their ruined homes.
¹¹ May a creditor seize all he has;
    may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
¹² May no one extend kindness to him
    or take pity on his fatherless children.
¹³ May his descendants be cut off,
    their names blotted out from the next generation.
¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
    may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the Lord,
    that he may blot out their name from the earth.

I couldn't help but think of the contrast between these two prayers when I read Acts 7:59-60. David and Stephen were both doing the will of God. David had people who were out to get him for the job he was trying to do as king of God's people. Stephen had people who got him for the job he was trying to do as God's ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). David prayed for vengeance. Stephen prayed for forgiveness.

What was the difference between the two men and between their prayers?

I'm not sure I understand that question completely. I know that David was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). His prayer for vengeance is included in the sacred scriptures that God's people have used to draw closer to God and to worship God. Someone pointed to the difference in their roles. David was instructed by God to fight battles against wicked people. He was a man of war. Perhaps that lead to a different type of prayer against someone who was opposing the kingdom of God.

What I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt about Stephen, was that he was a follower of Christ. And that didn't just mean he claimed his name. It meant that, to the best of his ability and with the help of the Spirit of Christ who lived in him, he also claimed Christ's life and attitudes as his own. I wonder if Stephen actually thought about Jesus' prayer on the cross "Father, forgive them for the know not what they do." I wonder if he was simply so connected to Christ that it flowed out of him without thought and without effort.

I think without a shadow of a doubt that the peace that controlled his life and his mouth and his emotions to the point that he was able to pray for God not to hold the sin of his murder against his murderers was that he knew exactly where he was going after the stones had finished their work. He had just been given a vision of heaven and of Jesus at the right hand of God. And before he prayed for God to forgive his murderers, he prayed for God to receive his spirit when the murdering was completed.

I've always been impressed with Stephen's faith and his compassion for his enemies, but I had never caught one of the answers to his prayer. William Barclay quotes the early church father Augustine as saying, "The Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen."

Wow.

Look again at the picture above. Find Saul in the bottom right-hand corner with the coats underneath him. And thank God that He forgave Saul and changed his name to Paul. Think about the passages that Paul wrote that have comforted and strengthened you. Think about the Christians that were converted by Paul that passed their faith down through the ages until it reached you. And thank him for the courage and the compassion of a Christian named Stephen who believed in God's grace through Christ so much that he offered it even to his murderers...one of whom was Paul.

Look around at the people in your own life. Think about the enemies that you would rather pray for vengeance to come upon them. I'm not sure what the theological implications of Psalm 109 are for a Christian today. Can we pray that same prayer as David did? Would it be right? Would it be wrong? Would it be dishonest not to and to "force" a prayer of forgiveness for my enemy when I would rather pray for revenge? I won't try to answer those questions. I'll just say that I praise and thank God that Stephen chose to pray Christ's prayer for Paul instead of David's prayer for his enemies.

Which will you choose?

Look at us! Acts 3:4-7

We are all fairly good at it. When the Salvation Army or the Girl Scouts or some other organization is camped outside Walmart asking for donations or sales and we are not in the mood to donate or buy, we can be distracted with just about anything in order to keep from having to look at the people hoping for our attention. I am ashamed to admit that at times I have even strategically picked which door to walk in so I wouldn't have to walk within eye contact range. We are even better at avoiding eye contact with people who we know are begging in big cities. For some reason, we feel like if we don't acknowledge them, then we can go on with our evening as if we weren't confronted with serious misery and despair.

We can only guess, but I think that is why Luke points to Peter's first actions and words to this beggar at the temple gates. Peter both looked straight at him, and then he invited...instructed the man to look back. If you read the preceding verses, you see that this man was a regular fixture at the temple. His friends brought him every day to beg. If you went into the temple,  you passed this man. Most had probably become accustomed and inoculated to his presence and his misery. And he had definitely become accustomed and inoculated to them...to the point that he didn't even look at the people he was begging from. His expectations were very low of people. He certainly was not looking to build any new relationships with the passers-by. He was simply hoping their religious duty and their guilt would twist enough of the worshipers to toss a few coins his way so he could eat.

And then Peter and John came by.

Peter and John who were witnesses to the compassion of Christ.
Peter and John who were witnesses to the glory of the Christ on the Mt. of Transfiguration.
Peter and John who were witnesses of the resurrected Christ.
Peter and John who had the Spirit of the living Christ living in them.

And they really looked at him.
And they invited him to look at them.

If we didn't even finish the story, we could already say that they had given him something of great value. They recognized him as a person and not just a nuisance and a project. They offered him dignity by offering him relationship. Even if it was just the relationship of a look in the eye.

I can't help but think of how many people have lamented never feeling welcomed in churches because of a lack of eye contact. A lack of feeling that anyone viewed them as anything more than just a nuisance or a project. And that is in our Bible classes and our worship assemblies! How much more so the the countless faces who have encountered followers of Christ in restaurants, on streets, and in the checkout line and yet they were never really "looked at" by the Christians nor were they invited to "look at" the Christians in return.

But that's not all Peter and John did for this man. I love the words Peter uses.
"Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you..."

For application purposes, the words that follow really don't matter. Because what they had to offer and what I have to offer and what you have to offer are going to be very different. I may have money to give. You may have time. Someone else may have connections. Another may have the gift of conversation.

What matters is that WHAT WE DO HAVE IS GIVEN IN THE NAME OF CHRIST!!

What do you have to offer someone? If you are not sure you have anything to offer, may I remind you that if you are a baptized follower of Christ, you too have witnessed the compassion, the glory, and the resurrection of Jesus even if you were not one of the original eye witnesses of the first century. And you definitely have the same Spirit of the living Christ living in you. If that is true, then you have something  to offer!

May we be a people who really sees other people. May each of us who wear the name of Christ make it our personal duty to ensure that everyone we come into contact with feels his/her significance in the eyes of God by looking into our eyes. And may we be ready and willing to offer whatever it is that we have to offer so that more and more people can run into the temple praising God for what He has done for them through us.