6th Sunday in Easter, 2004
The strongest common theme in all these passages is one of the spread of the good news and of the kingdom of God. You can see this view starting from Psalm 67, where a prayer is offered for universal blessing, continuing through John 14 (better from this theme than John 5) in which Jesus promises the greater blessing that will result from his going to the Father. The disciples are told to rejoice in that. In Acts 16:9-15 we see the action taken by the apostle Paul to carry out the call to spread the gospel, which is then fulfilled in Revelation 21 & 22.
In connection with this set of passages think about the amillenial interpretation of Revelation in which the kingdom of God, like leaven, spreads through the world, and we finally see the city of God serving as a light to the entire world. The more popular pre-millenial view sees this passage coming after the destruction of the entire world, and the creation of a completely new earth in a much more literal sense. Whichever your interpretation, the scene described is preceded by the spread of the kingdom through carrying out the great commission.
This is one of the major transition points in the book of Acts and in the history of Christianity?the gospel is spreading onto a new continent, another step on the path to Rome. One of the questions about the book of Acts is why it ends where it does, but the key factor is the progress of the gospel, starting in Jerusalem and moving ever further outward, ending up with Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, in Rome itself, with the obvious implication that the gospel will become universal, just as it managed to reach the capital of the known world.
As has happened at several other transition points, the direction came to someone through a vision. Peter receives a vision calling him to Cornelius (Acts 10) and Paul himself was converted through the medium of a vision. It is important to see that the gospel doesn?t just spread, it spreads according to a plan, and the plan is under God?s direction. The opening statement, which then becomes a loose structure for the book, is in Acts 1:8??You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be witnesses about me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in the furthest part of the world.?
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(9) Now Paul had a vision at night. A man from Macedonia was standing and urging him, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” (10)
So when he had seen the vision we immediately sought to go to Macedonia, since we were in unity in believing that God had called us to give them the good news. (11) We left Troas and sailed straight to Samothrace, then the next day to Neapolis. (12) From there we went to Philippi, which is a city, a Roman colony, of the first district of Macedonia. We stayed there for a few days. (13) And on the Sabbath we went outside to gate beside a river where we thought people would be to pray, and we sat down and talked to the women who had come together. (14) And a certain woman named Lydia, a merchant dealing in purple cloth from
Thyatira, one who feared God, heard it. The Lord had opened her heart to receive the things that Paul was saying. (15) And as she was baptized and all her household, she urged us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house. And she urged us strongly. |
Paul wanted to go further in Asia, but God directs him and the group with him in another direction. Was it wrong to go to Galatia? No! It was simply not the move God wanted for that moment. Paul?s move into Europe is prospered as evidenced by the quick travel.
This introduces one of the famous ?we? passages in Acts which many people believe indicate that Luke was present.
There is disagreement among translators between ?first city of the district? and ?city of the first district.? The syntax will allow either option.
It would be worth your while to read an article on Lydia in a Bible dictionary.
The Lord sent Paul; the Lord opened the hearts of listeners.
The conditional here assumes the truth of the condition for the sake of argument. |
Dahood considers this a prayer for the harvest, though most interpreters have seen in it a song of thanksgiving. The perfect ?gave? in verse seven, unless one finds a reason to translate it otherwise as Dahood does, would indicate that the harvest is already gathered. The Psalm starts from the point of view of the gracious blessing of the harvest and continues to pray that the people will be blessed and that the blessing will become universal.
It ties nicely into our Revelation passage, which can be seen as a further prediction of the fulfillment of the universal blessing and praise of God.
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(1) To the leader, on stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. (2) May God be merciful to us and bless us, May he shine his face toward us. Selah.
(3) So your way may be known in the land, Among all the nations your salvation.
(4) Let the peoples praise you God, Let all the peoples praise you. (5) Let the people sing and rejoice, For you judge the people rightly. (6) Let the peoples praise you God, Let all the peoples praise you.
(7) The earth has given its produce, Let God, our God, bless us. (8) Let God bless us, Let all the extremities of the earth be in awe of him! |
Dahood (AB: Psalms II) suggests repointing ittanu to athanu and translating it as a precative* perfect (essentially like the three Jussives that precede it). Dahood also takes nathenah (verse 7) as a precative perfect. Waltke-O?Connor gives a broader meaning to the preposition eth, allowing the translation ?toward? which I accept here.
Dahood continues by translating nathanah in verse 7 as a precative perfect, and following with three jussives, creating, in his view, a chiasm. It?s an interesting structure, but I think it?s too subtle to override the more overt theme of the Psalm.
Note the A B A? chiasm in verses 4-6, which places the focus on verse 5 while also emphasizing the universal nature of the worship of God.
The earth has given indicating that this is a thanksgiving for current grace and a prayer for continued blessing, both on Israel and on the world. (See note on verse 2, above regarding nathanah.) |
*Precative ? a verb expressing a wish or request.
The final picture of the new earth contains some of the most loved passages in Christian scripture. This passage can be seen easily as carrying forward and predicting the fullest accomplishment of the prayer for blessing in Psalm 67.
One should give thought to the actual wording of this passage. It seems to see such ?worldly? elements as nations receiving blessing from the city and from the presence of God there. It seems somewhat different from our common conception of the kingdom of heaven in which everything becomes ?spiritual? as opposed to physical, and all are blessed to the same extent.
Some good insights can be found in the New Cambridge Bible Commentary on Revelation (by Ben Witherington III), pages 264-278.
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(10) And he took me in the spirit onto a great and high mountain, and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
(22) But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the all-powerful is its temple as well as the Lamb. (23) And the city doesn’t have need of the sun nor of the moon to give light in it, for the glory of God shines there, and its light is the lamb. (24) And the nations shall walk by means of its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it, (25) and its gates shall never be closed by day, for there is no night there. (26) And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. (27) And nothing impure or that commits abomination or a lie shall enter it, but only those who are inscribed in the lamb’s book of life.
(22:1) And he showed me a river of living water, pure as crystal, going out from the throne of God and of the lamb. (2) In the middle of its street and on either side of the river there was a tree of live, bearing 12 types of fruit, giving its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. (3) And there will be nothing cursed there. And the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him (4) and they will see his face, and his name will be upon their foreheads. (5) And there will not be any night there, and they don’t need light of a lamp or of the sun, because the Lord God shines upon them, and they will rule forever and ever. |
Revelation is written as one long vision report, so we go from place to place ?in the spirit.? One should be aware of symbolic language in all cases in the book of Revelation.
The key message here is that God is the light and God is the one providing the blessing for the city, and that the blessing of God extends from it. This passage owes something to the vision of the restored Jerusalem and Israel in Hebrew scriptures. Read Isaiah 60, 65 and 66 and then compare and contrast the features of these descriptions.
See Ezekiel 47:1-12 for some background on the river.
If you preached on the earlier description of heavenly worship in chapters 5 and 6 when those chapters were used, you can connect them here. There the theme was anticipation, here accomplishment. |
Jesus could hardly make it clearer than he does here that God?s salvation, provided through the incarnation of Jesus is not a passive thing. (For some of my thoughts on this issue see A Fruitful Faith). It is by taking in the teaching of Jesus and being empowered by the Holy Spirit that the kingdom of God advances. Christians make a mistake by trying to accomplish transformation through political means when we have been given the mandate to spread the love of God one person at a time. Jesus came and demonstrated that love is a transforming force if applied.
It?s easy in arguing about spiritual gifts and sanctification to forget that the Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus with the church in a very real way. Where the Holy Spirit is active we should see love spreading and transforming lives. Where this doesn?t happen, we know that there is a problem and that something that is not holy has moved in. The future kingdom will give light and blessing because of the presence of God?s grace manifested in love.
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(23) Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and we will make a place to stay with him. (24) Nobody who loves me fails to keep my word, and the word which you heard is not mine, but it is of the one who sent me. (25) I have spoken these things to you while I am staying with you. (26) But the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything, and will bring to your mind everything that I have said to you. (27) I leave you my peace. I give you my peace. What I give you is not like what the world gives you. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. (28) You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going and I am coming to you. I you love me you will rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. (29) And now I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you may believe. |
Loving God and keeping his word is made essentially equivalent, stated twice, first positively, then negatively in verse 24. Jesus word is actually the word of God the Father. The unity is emphasized.
Jesus was present in one place in the flesh and demonstrated that God was determined to cross the gap between the infinite and the finite. Once Jesus left, his presence was supplied by the Holy Spirit. I would suggest that one of the biggest differences between the Holy Spirit before and after the incarnation is simply our understanding of God and what he is trying to accomplish. Because of the continuing spiritual presence of Jesus, his departure was not a time of sadness.
Are we carrying out the mandate given us here? Are we using the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our world? |
I strongly favor using John 14 in connection with this week?s texts, but I?m providing some notes on this passage independently. It?s a powerful passage on which to base an individual sermon.
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(1) After these things there was a Jewish feast and he went up to Jerusalem. (2) Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is call Bethzatha in Hebrew, which has 5 porches. (3) In these were lying a crowd of sick people, blind, lame and withered.
(5) And there was a certain man there who had been sick for 38 years.
(6) Jesus saw him lying there and he knew that he’d already been there for a long time. He said to him, “Do you want to be healthy?”
(7) The sick man answered, “Sir, I don’t have anybody who can throw me into the pool when the waters are troubled. When I get there, someone else has always gone in before me.”
(8) Jesus said to him, “Get up, take your mattress and walk!”
(9) And immediately the man became healthy and he took his mattress and walked. |
Many manuscripts add the following after verse 3: ?For an angel of the Lord bathed in the pool and troubled the waters from time to time. Then the first person to enter the pool after the water was troubled was healed of whatever illness he might have.? This is certainly not original, but it may well be informative as to the reason for this event.
The emphasis on the duration of the illness serves to highlight the healing. It also focuses our attention on the next question.
Why does Jesus ask this question? Surely after 38 years sick, the man does want to be healed. But there is a definite question about whether we want to be healed when we?re ill. It depends on the cost. We could have better heart health, but we can?t make the sacrifices necessary to get that health. This is even more true spiritually. There are things that hold us down, and yet we don?t want to give them up in order to get the healing that we need. Jesus asks the right question. Do you want to be healed?
The man has a program and a limited set of options. The only solutions, as he sees them, are to get into the pool at the right moment, or to remain ill. After this much time, he probably has little hope, but he hasn?t given up. Jesus is about to color outside the lines. Real solutions often require us to color outside the lines.
The alternative Jesus offers is a gracious gift, but it requires action. The man doesn?t pay a price to Jesus. But he must take action. He must accept the healing and move forward.
Immediately! This is a foretaste of the kingdom. |