June 4
2 Sam 22:1-23:23 | PS 122:1-9 | Prov 16:19-20 | Acts 2:1-47
Raising children it is recommended that we provide our children with a balanced diet. They need vegetables and fruit along with meat, etc. When it comes to the Christian faith, likewise, we need a balanced diet. This means that we need not just the Gospel accounts, or the New Testament, or the Psalms. We also need the entire counsel of the Old Testament, including the law, the historical sections, the prophets, and the poetic sections. But this is often not what is delivered by those who serve as leaders of congregations. This is also not what is often desired by those who pick up the bible and read. We are children, that is what God calls us. Just like our children would often mistakenly choose to eat chocolate and candy all day long, so we, His children, think we know best what we need. But we don't know this, He does. Growth comes by approaching Him daily, and allowing ourselves to be bathed by His full counsel, from the minor prophets to the Gospel accounts.
Peter literally walked with Jesus for three years, saw Him crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. With such a vivid experience, Peter did not do away with the Hebrew Scriptures. Seeing Jesus fulfilled in them, he leaned on them. So, he quotes the prophet Joel in Acts 2:17-18, "‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy." Peter then goes on to quote portion of a couple of the Psalms to drive home the message, which he spoke forth about Jesus in Acts 2:22-24, "“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it."
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit is not a New Testament teaching, but a fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. Alongside the prophet Joel, we read in Jeremiah 31:31-34, "“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah...But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” We read in Ezekiel 36:26-27, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." It is foolish to only watch highlight reels of a movie, you will never get the total picture. Likewise, it is foolish to pick and choose which portions of Scripture you will read, when the entire book is inspired and has been given to us by God, Himself.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: