Astonishing Teaching (Acts 13:12)

 


Monday, April 28, 2025


Psalm 19

Isaiah 50:4-11

Acts 12:25-13:13


Observance: Mark, evangelist and martyr [Transferred from April 25]


Astonishing Teaching (Acts 13:12)


Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.


Today we observe the feast of St Mark. The actual feast day is April 25; however, we had two good reasons to move it. Firstly, because this year it fell in Easter Week, and I’m sure the evangelist would have been happy to be transferred for the sake of our Lord’s resurrection. Secondly, because we also had ANZAC Day, which as we should be proud to always keep in mind, was invented by an Anglican priest. Your local RSL may not have included it in their ceremony, but it has its own Proper Collect to pray, as well as two full sets of readings to choose from.


Back to St Mark. We read an account from St Luke’s Acts of the Apostles who mentions a certain John, also called Mark, and we suppose that this is the same Mark who wrote the Gospel.


Mark is assisting Barnabas and Paul in their missionary work in Cyprus. They have sailed east from Salamis, the port just down the road from the main city of Antioch, and preached across the breadth of the island. Now at the western end of the island in the city of Paphos they find the Roman overseer, a proconsul by the name of Sergius Paulus, wonderfully described as “a man of intelligence”.


His conversion is a lesson for us, both to understand our own conversion better, and also to understand how others are converted in our own evangelistic work. The miracle of blindness St Paul worked on the magician was the point at which the proconsul believed – this is what the sentence seems to say. Yet it is not the reason why the proconsul believed – this comes at the end of the sentence: “for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord”. The moment in time was the miracle; but the reason was the teaching.


As much as we would all love to be miracle workers, we ought to remember that God works miracles only to support his teaching. No teaching – no miracles. And the teaching of the Lord is truly astonishing. We are dead in our sins, and cannot reach God on our own accord. Yet out of his great love towards us, he sent his only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and suffer the punishment for our sins. Rising from the dead, Jesus has now ascended into heaven and, by faith in his death and resurrection, we can be made right with God. Talk about astonishing. Talk about miraculous.


What miracles has God worked in your life? What did you learn about God in those miracles?


God of wonder, who works all things for our good and your glory: teach us to discern the truth of your teaching, that we may spend our days rejoicing in your glory.

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