Day Eleven: Acts 17-20

One of my favorite parts of the book of Acts is the sermon that Paul gives at Athens in Acts 17.  I love everything about it.  I love how they invite him to come and speak,  because “all Athenians... seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.” (17.21).

I love how he starts at a place where his audience can relate.  He sees an altar with the inscription: “to the unknown God.”  And so when he starts to speak, he says, this “unknown God” is the one I’m going to tell you about.

I love his description of God: “human hands can’t serve his needs - for he has no needs.  He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.” (17.25)

I love how close he brings God to them: “he is not far from any one of us.  For in him we live and move and exist...” (17.28)

And I love his big finish: “For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” (17.31).

Culturally relevant.  Rhetorically brilliant.  Eloquent and powerful.  A home run, right?

Well, not quite: “When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, ‘We want to hear more about this later.’... but some joined him and became believers.” (17.32-34)

It’s like Luke is showing us, even when you do everything you can do, there will be some who laugh at you in contempt and others who will remain undecided.  The truth is, there are so many factors going on for whether or not your attempts to speak truth to someone or show love to someone is accepted or rejected.  You can’t control a person’s response, and you can’t craft a sermon perfect enough to guarantee a positive outcome.

And the point is, that’s not your job.  And your focus shouldn’t be on the outcome, but rather, did I preach faithfully, did I love faithfully, did I serve faithfully?

Did I do all that I could do to honor my Lord?  

Leave the results to him.  That’s his department, not yours.

Lord, so many times my love and service is tied too closely to people’s response to me.  Help me to focus on faithfulness and not results.  Amen.

Day Ten: Acts 12-16

These chapters represent a major transition in the book of Acts.  Paul and Barnabas begin in the synagogues, preaching to the Jewish people who meet there.  But for the most part, their message is rejected because of religious teachers who continually incite the people against the missionaries.

And so Paul and Barnabas make a major shift: the gospel moves from the Jews to the Gentiles.  Nations and people groups outside of Israel, for the first time, are invited to stream into the people of God.  

Paul puts it this way: “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews.  But since you have rejected it and judged yourself unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles.” (13.46)

You see, God goes where he’s wanted.  If you don’t want him, someone else will.  The question is not whether or not the gospel will be triumphant among the nations.  The question is, will you participate?  Or will you keep putting it off and pushing God away?

If you do not respond to Christ, the opportunity to respond may be taken away from you.  It is arrogant and foolish to think that you will always have more time to respond.  You may not.  

Or put it positively: We who have the invitation of the gospel must respond immediately and completely.

As the writer of Hebrews puts it: today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

Lord, sometimes I don’t hear your voice that clearly.  But today, I hear your voice.  Let me not harden my heart. In your mercy, I respond.  Amen.

Day Nine: Acts 9-12

Of all the miracles that are recorded in the book of Acts, the central miracle is the conversion of Saul in chapter 9.  This can hardly be understated.  In Acts 7-8, Saul is the one who acts an official witness to the murder of Stephen. This is a tipping point, from here on out a wave of persecution begins, spearheaded by Saul.  He drags believers from their homes and the believers are scattered throughout the region.

When we meet him in chapter 9, he is “uttering threats with every breath, eager to kill the Lord’s followers” (9.1) Having scattered the believers in Jerusalem, he takes off for Damascus to hunt down the Christians there.  

On the road, however, who should he meet but Jesus himself?  This encounter changes everything.  The one hunting Christians becomes one himself.  He is baptized and instead of dragging believers from the synagogues, he is the one preaching.  His message: “Jesus is indeed the Son of God!” (9.20) 

Saul, who will later be called Paul becomes the greatest missionary in the history of the church.  His writings make up 1/3 of the New Testament.  And this was his story.

Is there a person in your life that you think is too hard hearted?  That they can never change, will never give God a chance?  Look at the story of Paul and take heart.  

Never treat another person as if there is no hope for them.  Never doom them, curse them or define them by their worst moments.  See their sin, but hope for them.

Even the hardest of hearts can be melted.  

Lord, so often I lose heart.  There are many people in my life that I don’t give a chance to change.  Help me to remember that you can melt hard hearts, including mine.  Amen.

Day Eight: Acts 5-8

The book of Acts is filled with these amazing, and sometimes comical stories.  I mean, how many times do the religious leaders have Peter and John arrested and then command them not to preach in the name of Jesus?  You get this sense of their frustration: they command them not to preach, and the next day, there they are again.  They throw them in jail, and by the time they get everyone assembled for the trial, Peter and John have been released from prison and are preaching in the temple again.  They drag them back to the council and say, “What’s going on?  Why do you keep on defying us?  Why aren’t you afraid of us?”

Peter and John say things like: “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?  We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” (4.19) and “We  must obey God rather than any human authority... we are witnesses of these things” (5.29-32).

In other words, “we’re not impressed by you.  We’re only impressed by God and what he’s done.” 

They beat them, and it says that “The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.” (5.41)

Their attitude, in the face of suffering, is “we’re just glad that he let us suffer for him.  what a privilege!”

I need a change of perspective.  Most of the time I am more impressed with other people, more concerned with what they think about me, and forgetful of God.  Most of the time when following God makes my life difficult, my response is not one of joy.  

I want to be as impressed with God as the apostles were.  

Lord, I pray that you would break the fear of man in my life.  Let other people’s estimation of me become less impressive, and help me to see you for how great you truly are.  Impress me with yourself.  Amen. 

Day Seven: Acts 1-4

At the beginning of the book of Acts, the disciples have a burning question: “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?” (1.6) After all, here is the Messiah.  He has demonstrated his power and authority by rising from the dead.  Does this mean that the time of oppression for Israel is over?  Does this mean that the fullness of God’s kingdom will be ushered in?  Is this the end of sickness, slavery, and injustice?  Will you at this time restore the kingdom?

Jesus’ answer goes like this: “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.”  In other words, when God’s plan has come to fruition, he will bring the kingdom.  The “when” is not our responsibility.  Our responsibility, when it comes to the final restoration of all things, is to wait and hope.  

And while we do, Jesus says: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere.” (1.8) 

Jesus basically changes the subject.  He says, “you want to know what I am going to do, but I have something that you will do.”  

“God when will you do something about the world’s problems?”

“You will be my witnesses.”

I think that this happens a lot.  We want God to intervene supernaturally, and one day he will.  But until then, God intervenes through us.  He intervenes by giving us the Holy Spirit and then calling us to be his witnesses, his mouth, his hands, his feet.  May we embody him well.

Lord, help me to wait and hope for your kingdom to come in its fullness.  And until then, help me to realize that you want to intervene in the world in me and through me.  Amen.

Day Six: Luke 21-24

After the resurrection, two disciples are walking on the road to a place called Emmaus.  As they walk, the resurrected Christ joins them, incognito.  They don’t recognize him, nor should they, as they are certain that he is dead.

He asks them what is troubling them, and they begin to tell them about their confusion over what has transpired in Jerusalem.  They were followers of a man named Jesus, who they had believed to be the Messiah. But this man has lately been arrested, tried, beaten to a pulp and then crucified most horrifically.  A suffering and dying man definitely did not fit the profile of the Deliverer they were expecting.  And yet, there were rumors that the tomb that kept his body has now been discovered to be empty.

Jesus, still incognito, takes the opportunity to explain the whole Old Testament to them and how it testifies to the Messiah and what he would be like.  (Wouldn’t you have loved to hear that?)  But what struck me was the question that Jesus asks them:  “Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory.” (24.26)

In other words, the pattern is suffering first, then glory.  We want the glory now.  But the path of the Messiah is suffering first, and then glory.  It is also the path that we will walk if we follow him.  Suffering first, then glory.  Cross precedes crown.  Pain precedes Prize.  

If we can expect suffering, then we need a backbone, perseverance, thick skin, so that we will not fall away upon encountering adversity.

If we can expect glory, then we need a soft and ready heart that is filled with hope. Because glory like resurrection comes out of suffering as deep as crucifixion.

If the pattern is suffering, then glory, we need thick skin and a soft heart.  We need stubborn perseverance and unshakeable hope.  

Lord, give me thicker skin so that I am not so quickly offended and overthrown by hardship.  And give me a soft heart that is always ready to hope that with God, nothing is impossible. Amen.

Day Five: Luke 17-20

Sometimes Jesus says things that just blow my mind.  

In Luke 19, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, he receives a kingly welcome.  It is ironic since in a week’s time the tide will turn and he will be crucified.  But in any case, the people are crying out “Blessings on the King who come in the name of the Lord!”

The Pharisees, perennial kill-joys that they are, try to shush the people.  After all, this kind of a thing had consequences.  If Rome found out that the people were welcoming another king besides Caesar, there would be trouble.  Besides this, they didn’t want to believe the implications of this cheer - that Jesus was actually the Messiah, the king who had been prophesied for so long.  So they say, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

And here is where Jesus says it.  “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers.”  Part of me wishes that they would keep quiet just because I want to see that!  But what Jesus is doing is seeing the claim of Messiah and raising it ten. He is saying, “who I am and what I am about to do is so significant that the physical creation itself, the earth, the rocks are ready to cheer.  And if you don’t they will.”

Who is this guy that the rocks are ready to cheer for?  Not just a teacher.  Not just a prophet.  His words would be the height of arrogance and conceit unless he actually is worthy of being worshipped by rocks, worthy of the stones getting up and starting to cheer.  He must be more than a teacher.  More, even than a king.

Either Jesus is the most arrogant person in the world, or he’s actually telling the truth.  And if that is the case, the people are not just welcoming a king.  

This is the one who made the stones.

This is God himself.

Lord Jesus, let me not be silent when the rocks are ready to praise you.  May I live today a life of joyful praise and thankfulness that you have come into my life.  I welcome you into my day today.  Amen. 

Day Four: Luke 13-16

As I read today’s text, three thoughts kept surfacing in my mind:

First, Jesus resists the religious who keep trying to show how religious they are.  Anytime the religious mindset makes us start to think that we have been good, or performed well, and therefore that God owes us, Jesus turns things on their head and shows how impossible it would be to get God to be indebted to you.  I am thinking here of the Pharisees in chapter 13 and 14.  The Pharisees wanted to show how much better they were than anyone else.  Jesus puts them in their place, saying “your best is not enough.”

Second, Jesus embraces the outcast, people who have been forgotten and lost, or people who have made a mess of their lives - in Luke 15, “tax collectors and other notorious sinners”.  He eats with them, he teaches them, he makes room for them.

Third, repentance is necessary for all.  Jesus does not allow anyone to stay where they are.  You must turn from your sin, or from your religion and embrace the mercy of the Savior.  The prodigal son in Luke 15 has to come to his senses and go home.  But when he does, he is not brow-beaten or rebuked for his foolish decisions.  He is welcomed.

Some of us need to repent of our sins.  Others of us need to repent of our religion.  In both cases we need to come to our senses and realize that we are not accepted because of how good we are, how faithful, how much we sacrifice, how committed we are.  Our best is not good enough.

But we are accepted because God is merciful.  He owes us nothing.  And yet his forgiveness and favor is freely given if we will simply turn and embrace him.

Lord, I turn to you today.  I repent of everything else I have been trusting in and put my confidence in you.  You owe me nothing, so everything that comes to me today is a gift. What I do with it will be my gift back to you.  Amen.

Day Three: Luke 9-12

In these chapters, we see Jesus going after the Pharisees.  The Pharisees were like a political party, a group of religious people who insisted on ritual cleanliness, separation from sinners, and rigorous observation of the smallest details of the law.  On top of this, they came up with all kinds of other rules that they added to the Law of Moses, fences to keep people as far from sin as possible.  

One of the most striking things about Jesus is that he saved his greatest anger and antagonism for this group of religious people.  In Luke 11, he tells them that great sorrow awaits them.  Why?

1. They are more focused on how they look on the outside than their hearts on the inside (11.39)
2. The are more focused on little details than on the larger things like justice and the love of God (11.42)
3. They are hungry to be shown honor and respect from people they consider to be less than them (11.43)
4. They hide their corruption beneath religious masks (11.44)
5. They love to give others impossible standards to live up to (11.46)
6. They revere prophets, but won’t do what they say (11.47)
7. They make the kingdom of God inaccessible (11.52)

I once heard Mark Batterson say that he has a mantra: “Thou shalt offend Pharisees.”  Jesus definitely had no problem with offending them, because they had exchanged a relationship with God for a religion that they controlled.

How easy it is for us to exchange relationship for religion!  We do just enough so that we can feel better than people who are “beneath us”.  We focus more on rituals than on real righteousness.  We clean ourselves on the outside, but don’t take care of the corruption on the inside.  Religion keeps us in control. 

We are like Pharisees.  And Jesus calls us to repent of our religion.  Repent of religion, and embrace relationship with the God you can’t control.

Lord, forgive me for trying to control my own life.  And forgive me for trying to control you.  I so often am more focused on my outside than my inside.  In your mercy, change me from the inside out.  Amen

Day Two: Luke 5-8

One of the main things that struck me as I read these chapters is the way that the word “sinner” is used.  The Pharisees used it to draw lines, to exclude, to separate themselves from those they perceived less than them.  But everyone described as a sinner in these chapters is a person who is attracted to and embraced by Jesus.

Peter, upon experiencing the miraculous catch of fish, falls at Jesus’ feet and says, “Oh Lord, please leave me - I’m too much of a sinner to be around you”  (5.8).  Jesus responds by telling him not to be afraid and then tells him that he has great plans for him.

When Levi the tax collector (tax collectors were associated with prostitutes and extortion) invites Jesus to his house with his friends, the Pharisees complain, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (5.30).  Jesus responds by saying that he has not come for those who think that they are righteous, but for those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”

Finally, when the “immoral woman” collapses at Jesus’ feet, washing them with her tears and perfume, wiping them with her hair, a Pharisee says, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman is touching him.  She’s a sinner!” (7.39).  Jesus responds that her many sins have been forgiven, and so she shows great love.

Two take-aways.  First, (as I once head Scot McKnight say), to the Pharisees, holiness was something fragile to be protected.  To Jesus, holiness was something powerful to be unleashed.  Their philosophy was, “if you are clean, you can be with us”.  Jesus’ philosophy was, “be with me, and you will become clean.”

Second, Jesus says, “a person who is forgiven little shows only a little love.”  My worshipful response of love shows my sense of being forgiven.  Have I not been forgiven much?  Therefore, I will love much. 

Lord, I come to you in the midst of much sin that has been forgiven.  Let me love you as one who has been forgiven so much.  Let me love you extravagantly, like the woman at your feet.  Amen.

Day One: Luke 1-4

I'll go ahead and post a few things that stuck out to me in these four chapters.

When Gabriel is telling Zechariah what his son will be like, he says, among other things, "he will be great in the eyes of God." (1:15)  I wrote in my journal, "What else matters?"  

A lot of times I want to be great in the eyes of people around me.  I want them to appreciate me and think that I am great and tell me that I'm great.  But on my best days, I know that people's approval and applause are really fickle and fleeting.  And what I really want for myself is to be great in God's eyes.  That's what I want for my son and daughter - to be great in God's eyes.  What else matters?

When Simeon blesses Jesus in the temple, he says: "this child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others." (2.34)  As Jesus begins to minister, he created division.  There are some who don't like him.  There are some who are offended by him.  There are some who don't understand why he does what he does.  But Jesus refuses to please everyone, he refuses to cave to the pressure to be what everyone else wants or expects him to be.  

He knew his father's pleasure, "You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy (3.22).  

He knew his mission, "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God... because that is why I was sent (4.43). 

He lived out of the Father's love and in accordance with his mission.

Help me, Father, to so live - not for approval or applause - but to live for you and from you.  Set me free from the need to please everyone.  Let me be great in your eyes. Amen.