Blessed to Be a Blessing (It is not what you think)
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God blesses us so we can bless others? How does He bless us? He blesses us by sending the Messiah to set our house in order. Jesus is the Seed who blesses the seed.
Ignorance, not malevolence, killed the promised Seed.
Malevolence, not ignorance, delays the promised Seed.
We bless the world by the cleansing of the promised Seed.
I am unfortunately the product of my own generation. I am part of that group called Gen-X. It is said of the Gen-X generation that we are the first generation who will
Not do as well financially as our parents.
We are latchkey kids
Self-Starters, Hard Workers
Skeptics, Really, Really Skeptical.
As a young adult, at the age of 21, I gave my life to Jesus. I was not skeptical of him but I was skeptical about his leaders (ha, ha, I became one). I was skeptical about statements they made that seemed self-serving. Statements like, “God blesses us so we can bless others.”
Sounds like you want my money soon became if my little bit of money can help somebody else it is worth it.
I eventually learned that tithing helped me more than the church.
I learned over the years that God blesses us in lots ways to be a blessing to other people: time, resources, friendships, words.
I returned back to my skepticism about this idea a couple of years ago because I had never heard anyone say to me
God primarily blesses you by turning you from you evil ways.
Acts 3:26
God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
Blessing is a present participle
Turning is a present infinitive
This is not about back there but about right now.
We need to know what “evil” is.
Evil is something absolute.
Evil is something definable and recognizable.
Evil is Maleficent.
Maleficence - knowing what you shouldn’t do and then doing it.
The holy-trinity of maleficence
God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your maleficent ways.
At this point, we all want to probably compare ourselves to some slightly mundane form of maleficence like…cheating on your taxes…What if you really, really looked at it, took a hard look at what your maleficent ways could lead to.
Maleficence Exposed: We all want to forget the horrible tragedy of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, or the Columbine massacre. Most of us would never ever compare ourselves to them. I get that, why would you? In my life of work, being a rabbi, I am constantly having to look at evil not for curiosity’s sake but for understanding its many faces. And reading the diary of one of the Columbine murderers is eye-opening and revolting.
The human race isn’t worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore.
I feel more confident, stronger, and more Godlike, I have confidence in my ability to deseve people...If you recall your history, the Nazis came up with a “final solution” to the Jewish problem…. Kill them all. Well, in case you haven’t figured it out, I say “KILL MANKIND.” No one should survive.
I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things. And no don't say, "well thats your fault" because it isnt, you people had my phone #, and I asked and all, but no. no no dont let the weird looking Eric KID come along, ohh ....... nooo - 4/3/99
17 days later they killed 13 people and injured 24.
First, they had to lie to themselves. Second, in arrogance they believe they are better than someone else and have a right to do this.. Last, the resentment “they deserve it.”
Maybe one more example of maleficent evil. Most of us remember the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Most of us remember when the levees at Lake Pontchartrain failed and broke.
there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina and landfall in Mississippi. The levee and flood wall failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish. Tens of billions of gallons of water spilled into vast areas of New Orleans, flooding over 100,000 homes and businesses.
Many people called this an “act of God.” A storm like no other. But if it was an act of God would that mean that God is maleficent? Sending a storm he knows he shouldn’t. Some people might argue this. I don’t
Did you know that The Flood Control Act of 1965 mandated improvements in the levee system that held back Lake Pontchartrain. The system was to be completed by 1978. Forty years later, only 60 percent of the work had been done.
Willful blindness and corruption took the city down, not a maleficent god.
A hurricane is an act of God. But failure to prepare, when the necessity for preparation is well known—that’s sin.
Walk through the process: deceive yourself, believe you can get away with it, and believe somehow i deserve this but they don’t.
The Bible Says Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the case of Mass Murder Shootings or the Levees breaking this is not metaphysical, abstract death this is real world consequences.
Here is the thing, I don’t hate cheap cliches. I actually love them. I love being told that God blesses me so I can bless others so long as that means anything but this. So long as it means give my money, my time, my networks, etx. But if it means, and it does, that Acts 3:26
God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
I really must confess this is challenging.
The world is blessed by me taking personal responsibility for my maleficent heart.
This was not new to the Jewish people. They had a long history of taking personal responsibility for their maleficent ways. Success would breed pride in a king, it would lead to complacency or idolatry, they go to war only to loose. They knew this was not God’s fault. They took it as axiomatic that God was good but they were evil. So, they would repent and God would relent and order would be restored.
Jesus dying on the cross would take this idea to an extreme new level. It is fair to say that, “The wisdom of the cross was hard-earned but for those who come to its wisdom it is life transformational.”
Ignorance, not malevolence, killed the promised Seed.
“And now, brothers, I know that you did it in ignorance, just as your leaders also did.
But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets—that His Messiah would suffer—He has fulfilled in this way.
In the past, Israel had no excuse for their rebellion. They rebelled with idols knowing full-well the command said, “Make no idols” they engaged in acts of immorality knowing full-well the command that said, “do not commit adultery.” That was maleficent evil.
The present death of Jesus was done in ignorance.
When tobacco was first used, people were largely ignorant of the harmful side effects of it.
Believing stereotypes about other ethnic groups is an act of ignorance.
Believing a rumor can be ignorant, like the rumor in the 1960s that Paul McCartney was dead and replaced with someone who looked like him.
At one time, some people thought that if you ate Chinese food, you would begin to look like Chinese people. This was an example of an ignorant belief.
They killed him based on false testimony and not believing that he was who claimed to be.
Melito of Sardis, a bishop in the 2nd century famously charged the Jewish people with “Deicide” and said they were guilty of the murder of God. However, Peter disagrees and says they were ignorant about it. Not only ignorant about this but also ignorant that it was part of God plan.
It was always going to be this way. There lack of understanding is part of what God understood to be the plan to bring about redemption.
Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
So what are they repenting of? What sins are really being laid to their charge?
The sin of ignoring the message of the prophets.
You may be ignorant of many of the laws of Israel but if you go there and break one of them your ignorance does not change the fact that you broke a law. They will tell you, your ignorance is your own fault because what you needed to know was written down.
The refreshing is the promise of Salvation and the Holy Spirit.
and that He may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must welcome Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning.
He is coming again v. 20.
Malevolence, not ignorance, delays the promised Seed.
Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you.
Deut 18:15
The resurrected prophet who speaks from Heaven through His Word and the Spirit.
Quote v. 24
You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.
Peter is now shifting the message from ignorance to accountability.
They are the children of those who took responsibility for their own evil ways.
Peter is quoting the promised to Abraham found four different times Gn 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4. A promise that means Jesus is the Seed who blesses the seeds.
God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
You are blessed to be a blessing.
Acts 3:26
God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
The wisdom of the cross was hard earned it reverses the Holy Trinity.
Resentment - They deserve to be paid back, the cross says I want what is eternally in your best interest.
Arrogance - I can get away with it, the cross says I did this so you would not have to.
Deceit - convince myself about doing wrong, love requires real sacrifice for others.
Consider your circumstances. Start small. Have you taken full advantage of the opportunities offered to you? Are you working hard on your career, or even your job, or are you letting bitterness and resentment hold you back and drag you down?
Have you made peace with your brother? Are you treating your spouse and your children with dignity and respect? Do you want the best for others? Or do you believe everyone owes you something?
Do you have habits that are destroying your health and well-being? Are you truly shouldering your responsibilities? Have you said what you need to say to your friends and family members? Are there things that you could do, that you know you could do, that would make things around you better? Have you let Jesus clean your heart from its maleficent ways?
If the answer is no would you do me a favor and try something.
Think deeply about your resentment.
Imagine what would happen if you acted on it.
Shut down that evil trinity by replacing it with the cross.
Instead of Resentment, it’s best for you to be forgiven by me.
Instead of Arrogance, confess that you thought you could live like Cain.
Instead of Deceit, live in light of the truth of the Gospel.
Watch what happens over the days and weeks. When you are at work you will begin to say what you really think. You will start to tell your wife, or your husband, or your children, or your parents, what you really want and need instead of holding it all in and putting it in your heart.
When you know that you have left something undone, you will act to correct the omission. Your head will start to clear up, as you stop filling it with lies. Your experience will improve, as you stop distorting it with inauthentic actions.
You will then begin to discover new, more subtle things that you are doing wrong. Stop doing those, too. After some months and years of diligent effort, your life will become simpler and less complicated.
Your judgment will improve. Your relationships will improve. You will untangle your past. You will become stronger and less bitter. You will move more confidently into the future. You will stop making your life unnecessarily difficult.
And the tragedies of life will still be there, but they will no longer be compounded with bitterness and deceit. Perhaps you will discover that your now less-corrupted soul, much stronger than it might otherwise have been, is now able to bear those remaining, necessary, minimal, inescapable tragedies.
Perhaps you will even learn to encounter them so that they stay tragic—merely tragic—instead of degenerating into outright hellishness.
Maybe your anxiety, and hopelessness, and resentment, and anger—however murderous, initially—will recede. Perhaps your uncorrupted soul will then see its existence as a genuine good, as something to celebrate, even in the face of your own vulnerability. Perhaps you will become an ever-more-powerful force for peace and whatever is upright.
Perhaps you will then see that if all Christians did this, in their own lives, the Messiah might come quickly from heaven.
Who knows what kind of eternal things God could establish by our spirits, purified by the cross, aiming skyward, right here on the fallen Earth?
God has blessed you by sending his Son to change your maleficent heart so that you could be a blessing to the world.