Fr. Mike discusses the ministry of the apostles and encourages us to allow God to work in our lives in the same way. He also reminds us that through Baptism, we are set free from our fallen human nature and given the freedom to live according to the spirit. Today’s readings are from Acts 5, Romans 8, and Proverbs 27:7-9. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What is the Advent Night of Reflection?
Hello, everybody. My name is Father Mike Schmitz. I want to let you know about a one-night-only opportunity we have in Newark, New Jersey on Monday, December 9th. It's right after the start of Advent. We're doing an Advent Night of Reflection and Q&A at the Newark Performing Arts Center again Monday, December 9th at 7 o'clock.
If you're interested in finding out more about this, go to ascensionpress.com slash fathermiketour. Basically, a night of reflection, diving deeply into what it is that we're preparing for in the season of Advent. If you're interested at all, Monday, December 9th, 7 o'clock, Newark Performing Arts Center. Go to ascensionpress.com slash Father Mike Tour. That's F-R-M-I-K-E Tour. God bless.
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today.
It is day 326. We're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 5, and Romans, St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 8, as well as Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 7 through 9. As always, the Bible translation that I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.
Chapter 2: What readings are covered in Day 326?
If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. As I noted, today's day 326. I think I said that. We're only reading two chapters. One is Acts chapter 5 and the other is Romans chapter 8.
Pretty phenomenal chapters, really big deal chapters when it comes to Romans. Well, of course, all of the Bible is inspired, but Romans chapter 8 is very significant. So again, Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, St. Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 8, as well as Proverbs chapter 27, verses 7 through 9. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira.
But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, Yes, for so much. But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the feet of those that have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.
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Chapter 3: Who were Ananias and Sapphira?
Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young man came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. The apostles heal many. Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.
None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. And more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. The apostles are imprisoned and brought before the council. But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison.
But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught. Now the high priest came and those who were with him and called together the council and all the senate of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.
But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, and they returned and reported, We found the prison securely locked and the sentries standing at the doors, but when we opened it, we found no one inside. Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were very much perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.
And someone came and told them, The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charge you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teachings and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. For before these days, Theodos arose, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of Romans chapter 8?
Father in heaven, we thank you. We praise you. Dad, we praise you and we love you. In Jesus' name, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, gosh, you guys, did I not say, did I not say that Acts of the Apostles chapter five and chapter eight of St. Paul's letter to the Romans was gonna be bonkers, completely bonkers today. Oh my gosh, I can't even begin.
Where do you even start? Okay, so here's the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Right before this, I don't know if you remember this, but in chapter four, we had a guy named Joseph, who's also named Barnabas, meaning son of the encouragement, who had sold the field, which belonged to him. He brought the money, laid it at the apostles' feet.
Here's Ananias and Sapphira, and they're kind of sort of doing the same thing, but they're not actually doing the same thing. They're working under the pretense of honesty or under the pretense of generosity. And that's the problem here. And one of the things that happens, obviously, is for us as well. I mean, even Peter says this.
He says, while you owned the piece of property, wasn't it yours to do whatever you wanted to do with it? Even after you sold it, you could do whatever you wanted to do with the money. But the problem is you made a pretense. You made a show of saying that you were giving everything when you weren't giving everything. That's the issue. The issue is not that, oh, you only gave X amount of money.
That's not the issue. The issue is you made a pretense. The issue is, remember, how many times did Jesus condemn those who are hypocrites? Again, being a hypocrite, the term hypocrite in Greek is the term for actor, right? I'm pretending to be someone that I'm not actually willing to be. Someone who wants to be seen as someone who they're not actually willing to be.
They want to be seen as having a virtue that they're not willing to choose, if that makes any sense. And so here's Ananias and Sapphira, they have this pretense, they're hypocrites. And because of that, it costs them their life. At the same time, starting in verse 12, the apostles are healing people like crazy. And that's such a remarkable thing.
They even say that they laid people out so that Peter's shadow would pass over them because Remember what Jeff had pointed out how many days ago, he said that Peter is kind of re-embodying what Jesus had done. And later on, Paul's going to be re-embodying what Jesus had done. And what's that a sign of? Not only of the fact that God used these super apostles, right?
These two apostles in remarkable ways. but also that we're called to allow the Lord to work in our way, our lives in a similar way. Now, I love this next story about how the apostles are imprisoned and brought before the council. Now, I read this story and maybe we might have mentioned this in that conversation with Jeff again. This would be my last reference to that conversation.
But one of the things that strikes me always is when I read this story, I am reading it and you and I are reading it from the perspective of it's already been done. It's already been lived. The story's already been written. And yet those apostles that were brought before the Sadducees, that were brought before the council, the story hadn't been written.
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Chapter 5: How does the Spirit intercede for us?
I'll say it like that. What's the apostle's response? The apostle's response is, then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. That's incredible. Rejoicing that they've been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And remember what Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sermon on the Plain.
He said, blessed are you when they hate you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice in that day for your reward will be great in heaven. And here are the apostles doing literally exactly what Jesus told them to do.
When you're found rejected, when you're found abandoned, when you're found abused for the name of Jesus because of your faith in Christ, rejoice on that day. And every day, and at home and in the temple, they did not cease teaching and preaching in the name of Jesus Christ. That's incredible. Incredible as well, Acts, sorry, Acts of the Apostles.
Nope, letters of the Romans, chapter eight, life in the spirit. Oh my gosh, you guys, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because you have the law and you have the law of the spirit. We have to put to death the things of the flesh. I mentioned this yesterday, that St. Paul, when he's referring to the flesh, he's not referring to our bodies.
He's not rejecting the body. We are our bodies. What human beings are is body and soul duality, right? We're a body and soul composite. We're embodied soul or we're in soul bodies. Either way, we are our bodies, right? So, and we are our souls. So he's not criticizing the fact that we have flesh. When he says flesh, he's referring to the fallen human nature that we are.
And basically saying, you can live according to that. You can live according to your fallen nature and say, well, because I feel this, because I'm attracted this way, that's how I act. And a lot of people do that. They say, well, this feels right. Therefore, that's how I'm going to live. Or this is what I'm attracted to. Therefore, that's what I'm going to choose. And yet St. Paul is saying,
You're set free from this. you actually have the ability, not only the ability, you have this freedom to be able to live according to the law of the spirit. And if the spirit of God really dwells in you, you are no longer in the flesh, you are in the spirit. It goes on to say, and this is verse nine, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirit's alive because of righteousness. And not only that, You know, I mentioned in the prayer today, and maybe I mentioned this before, that Jesus has revealed that God is our dad. And we sometimes use the term father, right?
We often use the term father, but he gave us the term Abba, which ultimately, you know, if you're going to boil it down, ultimately is that closeness of the word father, which would be papa or would be dad. And so I apologize again for anyone who is bothered by that. And yet we need to have that healed in us. We need to have that healed in us. Because yes, we have bad histories.
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Chapter 6: What does it mean to be a child of God?
Many of us have bad histories with our fathers or you have great history with your father, but it's a weird thing. And yet, St. Paul says, you did not, in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry Abba or dad, father, it is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Oh my gosh, you guys, someday in the next couple of days, I will make this big point. And this big point is, I'll say it right now, and then we'll back it up later on. The big point is that every human being is not necessarily automatically a child of God. Every human being is a beloved creature of God. Absolutely. That God himself gave his only begotten son so everyone would have life.
Every human being on this planet, every human being who's ever lived is a beloved creature of God. But we become God's sons and daughters through adoption. We become God's sons and daughters through baptism. We become God's sons and daughters when we're given the Holy Spirit. And so that's what St. Paul is saying. When we receive the Spirit, then we get to actually say, Abba, Father.
But before we're given the Holy Spirit, we're not. Before we're baptized, we're not able to say, Abba, Father, because it is baptism that makes us sons and daughters of God. Now, in a certain way, you know, God, the creator is kind of like kind of sort of like a father to all the creatures he makes, of course.
But we're truly made sons and daughters of God in the power of the Holy Spirit when we are baptized. And that is that's a big thing. Maybe it'll come back up because The letters of the New Testament make that point abundantly clear. Last thing. Oh my gosh, you guys, how incredible is verse 18 and following.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. I wonder if that's true in my life. Do I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us? I think it was St.
Teresa of Avila who said that at the end of our lives in heaven, she said, even the worst life will seem like a night spent in a bad motel. Compared to the glory and the joy and the love of heaven. That even the worst life on earth will seem like a night spent in a bad motel. Which we trust in. We believe that God loves us that deeply. Here's the last line, last word.
Verses 31 to the end of chapter 8.
if god is for us who's against us he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not also give us all things with him and goes on to say what shall who shall separate us from the love of christ tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for i'm convinced i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth
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Chapter 8: How does this episode encourage living in the Spirit?
Paul doesn't mention the one force that can take us out of God's hand, that can take us out of relationship with God, and that is sin. All these other forces are external forces. No one, no matter how much they hurt you, no matter how much they abuse you or use you, no one can take you out of the Father's hand. The only one who can is ourselves through sin.
And so we have to say, okay, God, I know that there's no external force. There's no power, not even a demon or an angel who can take me out of your hand. So since I'm the only one who can walk away, I'm the only one who can separate myself from you and your love.
Help me to never, never separate myself from you and your love through sinning, through rebelling against you, through saying, I want to do what I want to do. I'll leave you. Help me never, Lord. Help me never to wander away. That's a tall order. And if I do wander, Lord, bring me back. This is a gift. What an incredible gift today.
I'm sorry this is so long, but it's just only two chapters, but so much to say. So much gift today. And so last thing is I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.