Acts 6: Obstacles to Meeting Jesus, Part 1

Are there any obstacles to meeting Jesus? None. That is, none but you.

Let me draw your attention to verse 7 of Acts Chapter 6. It reads: So the word of God spread. The number of disciples increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

That last bit I want to focus on: and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

The priests and religious leaders as a whole had not accepted the truth that Jesus was the Messiah. The healing of leprosy wasn’t enough, the raising of Lazarus wasn’t enough—blind man, lame man, deaf man, their healings were not enough. His words no matter how truthful or lovely had not brought them to the realization they were speaking with the One like a son of man (from Daniel 7:13-14).

Nothing during the entirety of the 3 1/2 years when Jesus taught, healed, and loved softened their hearts enough to entertain the possibility Jesus may be the Christ, much less the Son of God.

Though a Pharisee and not necessarily a priest, but a representative example nonetheless of the religious crowd, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, principally because he was in the dark about who Jesus is. “We know you must have come from God because of the works that you do,” he said. But as Jesus pointed out, Nicodemus could not see it—he was blind—and he could not enter in—he was lame. Nicodemus would have to born again from above. What could Nicodemus do about that other than wonder what Jesus could be saying? Nothing for the moment.

Something would have happen to make being born again a real possibility. Nicodemus couldn’t reason it out. Jesus is not what he expected.

Even when directly confronted with blindness, their blindness, as recorded in John 9, the religious leaders could not overcome their fundamental rejection of Jesus as Messiah. They could not see what was right in front of them. While Jesus was not what Nicodemus expected, Jesus was not what these others wanted., at all.

Jesus’ words and accompanying power did not make a dent in Galilee or in Judah or in Jerusalem. How many were in the upper room waiting as Jesus had instructed them ? 120. He spoke to thousands. How many did he directly heal? That many at least. How many souls did he feed on any given day? And yet in the end, we have 120 gathered together in Jerusalem in Acts 1.

We would be wise not to condemn them too harshly. We would have likely fared no better, I am afraid. And the impenetrability of the human heart up to that point should concern us, but also give us compassion for others who stridently oppose the truth of the Gospel. We often find ourselves in these two camps: He isn’t what we expect, or He isn’t what we want. So we are lost, generally but not irretrievably lost—because the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

He is hope for us.

God’s broken heart and Christ’s broken heart on Calvary opened the way for my heart’s hardness to be broken up like fallow ground so that the love of Jesus Christ could pour in. It is as if they absorbed in themselves on the Cross the hardness of heart of all humanity, all the stiff-neckedness, all the rebellion, all the cursing, all the blasphemy, and yes the very hatred of God that stirs in the depths of a lot of us.

And then they buried all that filth and rot deep in the tomb, and they killed it all dead—that is to say, they put all that death to death, once and for all.

And then they gave birth to something so very different, and so very impossible had He not done it, that the chains fell off my soul—just like chains fell off of Peter, and fell of Paul, and fell of Silas—just like the door of the prison thrust open for Peter, and the entirety of the jail crumbled around Paul and Silas.

Christ is a single act of obedience to His Father saved all of humanity. In a master stroke—his death—he threw the door open to a new creation, a new life, and a new day. The stone was rolled away, and he couldn’t be found there.

Are you wandering the highways and byways of life? He has made room for you at his table. Are you poor? He will see you well fed. Are you crippled? He will make the crooked ways straight. Are you blind? You will see Him as He is. Are you lame? You will walk and leap and give praise to God. See Luke 14:21 (“Then the owner of the house became angry [with those who would not accept his invitation] and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”)

And so, He has invited you: Come, for now everything is ready. Luke 14:17

You see he has lain no obstacle before you. His heart is open wide. Either you will say “I can’t” or “I won’t” or “I will.”